Police said the store owner had not filed a complaint in relation to the incident.
Panaji:
A shop owner at Calangute in Goa was forced to publicly apologize and raise’Bharat Mata ki jai‘ slogan after a video, in which he expressed support for the Pakistan cricket team, went viral on social media, a police official said on Saturday.
A group of men forced him to apologize and held up slogans on Thursday, the official said, adding that there had been no complaints regarding this.
A man in Goa, India, was forced to his knees by a crowd to publicly apologize and shout ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ because he supported the Pakistani cricket team when it played New Zealand. How can a country of 1.4 billion people be so unsafe? pic.twitter.com/jjR8xYFCd8
– Ashok Swain (@ashoswai) February 25, 2023
This follows an undated video released by a travel vlogger in which the owner of a shop at Calangute in North Goa is said to be saying that he supports the Pakistan cricket team as it is a region of the world. Islamic. The neighboring country appeared to be playing against New Zealand when the video was shot.
The video shows the vlogger having a brief conversation with the man. Vlogger asked the owner: “Who is competing? Are you cheering for New Zealand?” The man replied, “For Pakistan.” Then the vlogger asked him why, and the man replied, “This is a Muslim area.” After the video went viral, a group of people approached the store owner on Thursday and questioned him for supporting Pakistan.
Video footage of this group of people forcing the shop owner to apologize also went viral on social media.
The video shows a member of the group telling the man: “This whole village is Calangute. There are no Muslim lanes or any other lanes. Don’t divide the country based on religion. .” He was then asked to kneel and apologize to his compatriots.
After initial reluctance, the store owner featured in the video apologized by kneeling and covering his ears. The video also shows the group making him hold up the slogan ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’.
When contacted, a local police official said a group of men forced the man to apologize.
“But no complaints have been filed regarding the incident,” he said.
Sarpanch of Calangute, Joseph Sequeira, confirmed the incident, but no formal complaint has been registered with the panchayat or any other authority.
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