Petrol bombs hurled at TN cinema theatre screening 'Amaran', Hindu Munnani members detained

Tirunelveli (Tamil Nadu): Some unidentified miscreants hurled petrol bombs at a cinema hall screening actor Sivakarthikeyan’s biographical drama, 'Amaran', early on Saturday, police said.

No one was hurt, police, who are investigating the incident, said.

A group of Hindu Munnani (Hindu Front) activists were detained by the police for allegedly entering the theatre after the incident occurred, and were later released, the outfit said.

"Two miscreants hurled petrol bombs inside the compound wall of the cinema complex in Melapalayam. It exploded. No one was, however, injured and it did not cause any damage to property," the police said.

Strongly condemning the incident, Tamil Nadu BJP vice-president, Narayanan Thirupathy, alleged that "Islamic fundamental organisations such as SDPI, MNMK, Thouheed Jamath had earlier protested against the movie 'Amaran' a biopic on Major Mukund Varadarajan, who was posthumously awarded Ashok Chakra for his valour during a counter-terrorism operation, stating that it had portrayed Muslims as terrorists which was not true." The movie had in several scenes shown Indian Muslims as martyrs and patriots. "But unable to bear that the movie had shown the terrorist activities that took place in Kashmir, the fundamentalistic organisations had threatened the screening of the movie," he alleged in a post on the social media platform 'X'.

But the people of Tamil Nadu welcomed the movie and made it a huge success. Unable to digest this, today the fundamentalist organisations resorted to violence and hurled petrol bombs in a theatre where the movie 'Amaran' was screened, Narayanan said.

According to a leader of the Hindu Munnani here, a few members of the organisation led by its state vice president V P Jayakumar went to the theatre purportedly to console the theatre owner but were however detained by the police.

"We were stopped at the entrance to the cinema hall. The police prevented us from entering and claimed that we had assembled to protest. But we clarified that they had only been there to console the affected theatre owner," a senior functionary said.

Jayakumar who entered into an argument with the police, later said his party members had not gathered to protest.

"The police had even prevented us from meeting the press who had assembled near the cinema hall," he said.