"There could be some connection between Shiv Sena president Bal Thackeray's recent statement attacking my serial and the RSS lobby to sabotage it," Shoaib Ilyasi, producer-director of Aaliya Productions told reporters here.

"For any adverse thing happening to me or my family member or crew member, no one else but the Home Minister and Home Secretary (B P Singh) would be held responsible", he said.

He said 48 episodes of the serial, that were telecast on Zee TV, had fetched him threats from gangsters including Dawood Ibrahim, Babloo Srivastava, Sri Prakash Shukla and terrorist outfits from Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.

"While theKhalistan Liberation Front had threatened us not to project Maninder Singh Bitta, once the target of terrorist attack as an hero, our episode on foreigners taken hostage in Kashmir have earned us flak from groups there," Ilyasi said.

While he had requested for "Z" category security, the Delhi police had ordered withdrawal of two security guards provided to him earlier, Ilyasi said, adding the serial would not be telecast on February 23 in protest against government apathy.

He said besides the RSS and Shiv Sena lobby, pressure must have also have been exerted on the Home Ministry by political parties including the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party.

Ilyasi claimed his serial had helped government machineries to nab at least 11 gangsters while some of them were killed in police encounters.