A photo of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, the chief of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), depicted as the Hindu god Lord Shiva has reportedly gone viral on social media, triggering outrage among the Hindu community in Pakistan. The photo was posted on a Facebook page by PML-N supported on April 8. The page is titled ‘We Love Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and PML(N) and is supposedly meant for the supporters of former Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif and his party PML-N.

The post has not only caused an uproar from Khan’s supporters but also from Hindus and Muslims in both India and Pakistan. The country’s general elections are just a couple of months away and targeting rivals in nothing new. Slamming the post, several users in Pakistan took to Twitter to express their disapproval of the picture.

One User Kaidar Nath tweeted saying:

Responding to Kaidar’s Tweet, Another User Commented:

Some users even demanded action against the Facebook page that posted the photograph. According to a report, Khan’s PTI party accused the supporters of rival Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) of circulating the offensive photograph on social media sites. Apart from the Hindu minority, Pakistan Parliament also displayed their uproar over the issue.

Pakistan’s National Assembly Speaker, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq on Thursday asked the interior ministry to crack down on any individual or groups involved in posting blasphemous material about the Hindu religion. The speaker was quoted saying, “Such posts have deeply hurt the religious sentiments of more than four million Hindus living in Pakistan. Such offences were covered by cyber laws and should not remain unpunished.”

Another parliamentarian Lal Chand Malhi said there was evidence of a malicious online campaign targeting the minority community and desecrating images that were revered by millions of Pakistani Hindus. He also added that the social media campaign against the Hindu community had been going on for two weeks. Tallal Chaudhry, minister of state for interior assured the house that his ministry would investigate the online attacks on the Hindu faith and seek out the culprits.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 14, 2018 03:54 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).