The Shiv Sena has threatened to “celebrate” the 350th death anniversary of Afzal Khan on Tuesday by displaying giant posters of Chhatrapati Shivaji killing the Adilshahi general.

An arch depicting the killing during the Ganesh festival in Miraj district, Sangli, had led to riots in August, and a wary Mumbai Police has made a no-objection certificate compulsory before displaying such posters during the anniversary, which the Sena wants to observe as anti-terrorism day.

The Sena, however, has threatened to go ahead without police permission.

The police on Saturday alerted the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) against permitting the planned display without a police NOC. However, Sena corporators created pandemonium in the general body meeting of the BMC on Monday and gheraoed acting municipal commissioner R A Rajeev, who has issued circulars directing ward offices to take strict and prompt action against such posters. “If the police give an NOC, we will not object,” he said.

Alongside the killing, the posters show a Marathi couplet. It also has photographs of Tukaram Omble, Hemant Karkare, Vijay Salaskar and Ashok Kamte, Mumbai policemen slain during 26/11.

Sena leader Diwakar Raote said the killing of Afzal Khan is detailed in school history books and Muslims don’t find anything objectionable in it. “Muslim organisations have no objection but the police and state government are creating unnecessary tension,” said Raote.

Raote claimed that during the Sangli-Miraj riots, the government had assured the Sena that the poster is not banned. He said they would continue the display.

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