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Updated: Apr 04, 2019 19:36 IST

In Madhya Pradesh, the opposition BJP on Thursday launched an attack on Bollywood actor Salman Khan and the Congress government accusing them of hurting religious sentiments and sought registration of a case against the actor.

The Congress said the BJP had “no real issues” to raise, whereas Khan threatened to shift the shooting of his movie out of Madhya Pradesh, if such harassment continued.

Salman Khan is shooting for Dabangg 3 at Maheshwar in Madhya Pradesh. During the shooting, members of the film crew kept a wooden plank on a ‘shivling’ and some of them were seen standing on it. As the picture of the crew members standing on the wooden plank went viral on social media, some local residents protested against the shooting, Maheshwar police said.

Meanwhile, the Bollywood actor told reporters at Maheshwar that there was no intention to hurt religious feelings. BJP vice-president and legislator Rameshwar Sharma claimed that since the Congress had formed the government in the state the religious sentiments of Hindus was being deliberately hurt. He also demanded that chief minister Kamal Nath should instruct the police to lodge a case against Salman Khan.

State Congress spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi said, “The BJP has no real issue to contest the Lok Sabha election. The then BJP government in the state hardly did any development work. That is why they are desperately looking for such issues, which creates a divide between Hindus and Muslims. But they will not succeed in their design.”

Khan said the ‘shivling’ was covered with a wooden plank to ensure that there was no disrespect to the deity by anyone. “The wooden plank was later removed. There was no intention to hurt anyone’s sentiments,” Khan said, adding that he may shift the shooting to Uttar Pradesh if the harassment continued.