Imran Khan’s viral photo as Lord Shiva causes outrage in Pak social media

A photo of Pakistani former cricketer and politician Imran Khan as Lord Shiva that has gone viral on social media has caused quite a bit of an uproar. This is not only from Khan’s supporters but also from Hindus and Muslims in both India and Pakistan. The Pakistan Tehrek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief is known to court controversy, and with the country’s general elections just a couple of months away, targeting rivals is not new.

According to reports, the edited photo was posted on social media by a Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), PML-N, supporter on April 8, 2018, and since then, it has gone viral on several online platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Screenshots of the picture shows it being posted on a Facebook page called ‘We Love Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and PML(N)’, although, after a search through Facebook, the post is no longer available.

“If we are equal citizen in Pakistan so what is this ? This is not in Islam that. We want to take action against this. We are Pakistanis but first we are Hindu. I requested to @AsimBajwaISPR @MaryamNSharif @ImranKhanPTI to take action ageist this facebook page,” posted a certain Kaidar Nath on Twitter.

This was then subsequently shared by others on social media, with many commenting on how the Pakistani Hindu community has been offended by the depiction.

Some news reports have suggested that the Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan Sardar Ayaz Sadiq has ordered the Home Minister to submit a report on the issue. The Pakistan Parliament was also reportedly disrupted over arguments on the photograph that seems to have hurt the sentiments of many.