Actors are always soft targets, no matter what: Riteish Deshmukh on MNS orders against Pakistani artists

Reacting over the recent orders by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) giving ultimatum to all Pakistani actors to quit India in 48-hours or face consequences, Bollywood actor Riteish Deshmukh said actors have always been the first ones to be targeted, no matter whatever the agenda is.

"Artists are like soft targets, which is very unfortunate. The concentration is somewhere else and this is not the solution to it. If this was the solution then fair enough, but this is not the solution," said the 37-year-old actor.

Meanwhile, the party also warned that it would not allow the release of Bollywood films featuring Pakistani cine or television stars including the upcoming Karan Johar's Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and Shah Rukh Khan starrer Raees as the movies star Fawad Khan and Mahira Khan respectively.

The political party made the announcement after tension between the two Asian neighbours escalated to a new level post the killing of 18 Army personnel in a terror attack on an army base camp in Uri sector of Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district.

India has blamed Pakistan for the attack as the investigating agencies reportedly recovered weapons and ammunition bearing Pakistani marks from the site.

Pakistan has, however, flatly rejected New Delhi's claims of involvement in the Uri terror attack stating India has a traditional tendency of pointing fingers at the former, whenever a terror attack takes place on Indian soil.