In Ghatkopar, Mumbai, residents erected a 25feet high effigy of Masood Azhar, the chief of JeM, the terror outfit which claimed responsibility of the Februray 14, Pulwama attack, and set it to fire, in an act symbolic of the country's outrage.
The Janata Seva Sangh which organizes Holi celebration themed on social issues every year, had burnt Masood Azhar’s effigy in the wake of the outrage prevailing in the country after the terror attackmwhich killed 40 CRPF personnel. The effigy was torched by MP Kirit Somaiya.
Residents of a neighbourhood in the Bihar capital also put up effigies of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar and Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed in the streets for torching them as part of a 'Holika-dahan' ritual.
The effigies were mounted on top of a huge pile of timber and broken twigs on a street in Kadam Kuan's Nawal Kishor Road, which was burnt to mark 'Holika dahan' or the eve of Holi.
The pile faced a shop on the street side, which sells colours, 'pichkaris' (water toy guns) and fancy masks, while an image of a jawan in combat fatigue and pointing a gun, had been put up on an electric pole in the corner of the road.
"People from the local area have put effigies to show solidarity with the spirit that terror activities originating from Pakistani soil would not be tolerated by India and its people. Pictures of both the terrorists have been pasted on the faces of the effigies," a local shopkeeper, who did not wish to be named, said before the burning ritual.
A placard each had also been slung around the necks of the two effigies, bearing slogan of 'Pakistan Murdabad'.
While Saeed, head of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, who had orchestrated the November 2008 Mumbai terror attack in which 166 people were killed, is a designated terrorist, a fresh move has been made at the UN to designate JeM chief Azhar as a global terrorist, which has been blocked by China.