The Pakistan Police started an investigation against a Pakistani model and a clothing brand on Monday for hurting the religious sentiments of the Sikhs by conducting a bareheaded photoshoot at the revered Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur following the criticism of pictures from an Indian Sikh journalist.
In a tweet, independent journalist Ravinder Singh, noting that the pictures have been uploaded on social media, highlighted the disrespect shown to the Sikh community and also tagged Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan in his post.
“Modelling bareheaded for ladies’ attire, in the premises of Gurdwara Sri Darbar Sahib at #KartarpurSahib in Pakistan, by a Lahorite woman has [severely] hurt the religious sentiments of Sikhs,” he tweeted.
Covering one’s head in a gurdwara is mandatory and is also considered as a way of showing respect for the divine place.
Following the criticism on social media about the photoshoot, the Punjab province’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government got into action.
Issuing a statement, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar said he has taken notice of the incident and ordered an inquiry into the matter.
“Action will be taken against those responsible after a comprehensive investigation into this matter,” he added.
In another tweet, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said “the designer and the model must apologize to Sikh community” over the photos, adding that “Kartarpur Sahib is a religious symbol and not a film set.”
The model’s photos were shared on the Instagram page of a clothing brand named Mannat Clothing but were removed after the criticism, according to reports in Dawn newspaper.
Police would first investigate the model and the brand’s role in the capturing of the photos and later register a case, Azhar Mashwani, the Punjab chief minister’s focal person for digital media, was quoted as saying in the report.
He said, “The Police are checking whether the model conducted the photoshoot on her own or the brand carried out the session.”
The brand- Mannat Clothing, however, clarified that the pictures posted on its accounts are not part of any photoshoot done by it.
“These pictures were provided to us by a third party (blogger) in which they were wearing our dress. However, we accept our mistake that we should not have posted this content and we apologize to every single person who was offended by this,” the clothing brand clarified.
Posing in the pictures, Model/blogger Sauleha Imtiaz, also apologized saying: “I just went to Kartarpur to learn about the history and know about the Sikh community. It wasn’t done to hurt anyone’s sentiments or anything for that matter.”
“However, if I have hurt anyone or they think that I don’t respect their culture, I am Sorry,” she wrote on her Instagram adding, “I respect the Sikh culture very much and I am sorry to all the Sikh community.”
Talking to PTI, a senior official of the Punjab government that no such fashion shoot can be done especially at the Kartarpur Sahib without the knowledge/permission of the officials concerned.
“There has been strict security at Kartarpur Sahib observing the code of conduct there. It is simply out of the question that a model dodges the security personnel and does a fashion shoot. Someone from the gurdwara is involved in this episode,” he said.
Earlier, Pakistani actress Saba Qamar, who starred in the Bollywood movie ‘Hindi Medium’, was booked in a blasphemy case for doing a photoshoot at historic Masjid Wazir Khan in the old city of Lahore.
(Inputs from PTI)
