Bajrang Dal men remove 'Pakistani food fest' banner from restaurant, set it afire in Surat

Surat, Dec 13: Activists of right-wing Bajrang Dal on Monday took down and set on fire a huge flex banner announcing "Pakistani food festival" to be organised at a restaurant here in Gujarat, a senior office-bearer said and claimed that the concerned restaurant has accepted its "mistake".

This banner put up atop a building housing the restaurant in the Ring Road area was taken down and set blaze amid chants of "Jai Shri Ram."

The said food festival was supposed to be organised at the 'Taste of India' restaurant between December 12-22.

South Gujarat Bajrang Dal president Deviprasad Dubey said the member activists took down the flex banner from the building and set it on fire because they are against such an event.

"We ensured that such a festival is not organised at that restaurant. No such festival will be tolerated. The restaurant has accepted its mistake," he said.

Sandeep Dawar of 'Sugar N Spice Restaurants', which operates 'Taste of India,' said they will continue to serve the Mughlai cuisine and will strike out the word "Pakistani" from the food festival as it hurts the sentiments of some people.

"We will not use the word 'Pakistani' anymore in the food festival as it hurts the sentiments of some people. When we were using that word we felt that some people might not like it, but we did not know it would turn out like this...We are just serving cuisine which has nothing to do with Pakistan as such. The second name of Mughlai cuisine is Pakistani food," Dawar said.

No police case was lodged.