Bollywood actor Satish Kaushik’s 5 theatres burnt down in the protests that rocked Arunachal Pradesh capital Itanagar against the government’s latest move to grant permanent residency certificates (PRCs) to non-Arunachal Scheduled Tribes.
“I am associated with five theatres named Picture Time. I am a promoter. I got a call this (Saturday) morning from the owner, Sushil Choudhary, that our five theatres were burnt,” Kaushik told IANS.
Satish Kaushik’s 5 theatres torched
“I reached yesterday (Friday) and went to the hotel. I was supposed to get ready for the evening function… But they (organisers) said ‘hold on’ there is some problem … The event could not take place due to protests. The protesters were on a rampage and pelting stones. We couldn’t make it to the convention centre.
“There was a fire. We got stuck. We thought we’d leave in the morning but we got stuck. We crossed the border with the help of an IAS officer. He sent people and about 10-12 vehicles for us. Then we crossed the (Arunachal Pradesh) border,” Kaushik Satish added.
Itanagar was burning last night after I rchd hotel. IIFF was xld & we got held up in d hotel till now . Our 5 theatres of @PictureTime4 were burnt.heavy losses. Now crossed d border.. thx to Govt of Arunachal Pradesh for our safety @sushilsays pic.twitter.com/98xxj4QrSX
— satish kaushik (@satishkaushik2) February 23, 2019
The widespread violence, which had been going on for three days, led the Arunachal Pradesh government on Sunday to freeze its decision on the controversial permanent residence certificate (PRC).
The violent protests, which also saw the torching of the Deputy Chief Minister’s house, made the government declare that it will not implement the report granting PRC to six communities living along the Assam-Arunachal border.