Yahya Mujahid, spokesperson for Hafiz Saeed said, “This film was calling for an attack on Hafiz Saeed, and this was clearly terrorism on the part of India, to release such propaganda”.
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The film is supposed to hit the theatres all across the globe on August 28.
Among the evidence presented at Lahore’s high court was a scene in which a character argues that India should assassinate a man named Harif Saeed in the same way US forces slipped into the Pakistani town of Abbottabad in 2011 to kill the former al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
According to a court document, the government said it had received no request from the producer of “Phantom” to show the movie in Pakistan.
The Lahore High Court issued a ban on Thursday, Saeed’s lawyer said.
Saif Ali Khan, who stars in the movie claimed that the film was based on facts.
Nonetheless, Judge Shahid Bilal Hasan ordered a ban until 23 September, to give the interior ministry time to explain what steps it was taking to block films critical of Pakistan. He clarified the stand of his client saying, “It is obvious that dialogues coming out of the lips of the different Indian actors and actresses will poison the minds of Pakistani public and will portray Hafiz Saeed as terrorist even though JuD has not been declared as a proscribed organisation”.
Saeed, who founded Lashkar-e-Taiba, now runs the charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which India says is a front group for Lashkar.
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The US has offered $10 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Saeed, who denies any involvement in the attacks. Pakistan’s Censor Board has been sensitive about allowing exhibition of Indian films in Pakistan, especially when they are related to the country. Back in 2012, Kabir Khan-directed Ek Tha Tiger had also faced a ban in Pakistan.
