Art of Living sessions in Pakistan cancelled in wake of threat perceptions

The sessions planned by the Art of Living in Pakistan to mark International Yoga Day on June 21 was cancelled in wake of threat perceptions.

The authorities in Pakistan advised the Art of Living volunteers to cancel the events in the wake of threat perceptions from the extremist groups. "Pakistan Government advised the Art of living centres to cancel programmess because extremists groups had threatened individually all of them," Art of Living spokesperson Dinesh Godke told ANI.

"Guruji [Sri Sri Ravi Shankar] asked us to go with whatever Pakistan Government says," he added. Sessions had been planned from June 13 to June 21 for students of many schools in four cities of Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad and Faisalabad in Pakistan.

The United Nations declared June 21 as International Day of Yoga after adopting a measure proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Prime Minister Modi in his speech at the UN General Assembly in September last year called for recognition of such a day.