J&K calls for bandh against Rushdie

Srinagar: A hardline militant outfit protesting Salman Rushdie's knighthood has called for a Friday bandh in Jammu and Kashmir.

Rushdie, whose The Satanic Verses outraged many Muslims around the world, was awarded a knighthood last week for services to literature in Queen Elizabeth's birthday honours list.

Clerics in the valley issued a fatwa against Rushdie on Wednesday and asked booksellers to take his books off the shelf.

Grand Mufti Bashiruddin has asked Kashmiri Muslims to burn Rushdie's writings. And almost 200 protestors burned effigies of the Indian-born British author accusing him of blasphemy.

In Kashmir, where Rushdie’s grandparents once lived, a death edict was issued in 1988, which holds even now.

Though many Kashmiris haven't heard about Rushdie's knighthood, bookstores started withdrawing his books, once news about the new fatwa spread.