walla, one of the top
film exhibitors in Pakistan is yet to recover from the shock of seeing his beloved Nishat cinema, one of the oldest and most well known places in the city, burnt down and damaged by enraged mobs who were protesting an anti-Islam film last Friday.
What has shocked me is that since Pakistan was created we have seen numerous protests, processions and strikes by religious and political parties on MA Jinnah road but it was a undeclared understanding no one would target the cinemas on the road,” Mandviwalla told.
“But this time everything changed and it was horrifying to see the way the mob which was out to celebrate a day of love for our Holy Prophet went to work on the cinema,” he said.
Mandviwalla, a respected name in Pakistan’s entertainment industry, said the incident where four cinemas were burnt and damaged by the mob on the bustling MA Jinnah road has left him fearing for the worst and more intolerance in future. “In the past whenever they were strikes, protest calls or religious processions we always cooperated and kept our cinemas closed. My workers pleaded with the mob not to attack the cinema which has a historical significance but they wouldn’t listen,” he said. Mandviwalla said some people in the mob had come prepared with rods, bolt cutters and petrol bombs. (PTI)
