Bageshwar Dham head Dhirendra Krishna Shastri has landed himself in a controversy over his alleged statements made against a religion.Taking strong note of it, the Shahi Imam Punjab, Maulana Mohammad Usman Rehmani Ludhianvi, has asked the spiritual leader to apologise for his remarks that he said had hurt religious sentiments. He warned that there would be a retaliation otherwise, not just against the leader but against the organisers who had held the five-day event in Ludhiana.Shahi Imam, while issuing a statement against Dhirendra Shastri through a social platform, said that, “You are more than welcome here in Ludhiana but that doesn’t give you any right to spread hatred among the people of Ludhiana on the basis of caste and creed. The people of Ludhiana, who belong to different religions, are one and have always supported each other. Your attempt to divide them on the basis of religion is simply not acceptable. The soil of Ludhiana is deep in love for each other- don’t spoil the peace by spreading hatred. The Gurus, Muslims sacrificed their lives for Hindus which conveys how well-knit the social fabric is and how nicely we respect and accept each other,” said Shahi Imam.Maulana Usman also said that Dhirendra Shastri spoke against China, but the mics used for making statements were from China, the largest democracy in the works with which business of the nation depends.“He may be saying everything to make the masses laugh but many of his statements are in bad taste, specially against people of Ludhiana, which will not be tolerated,” said Imam.It is not just Muslims who expressed resentment over his statement, members of the Christian community, too, met the Commissioner Police with the concern that the leader’s statement would flare up religious sentiments and there were chances of violence.Albert Dua, president, Christian United Federation, here told The Tribune that Shastri tried his best to divide the people of Punjab but Christians would maintain peace. “The statements show the mentality of the spiritual leader — how he was trying to divide the people of Punjab. There is no need to disturb the peace in the state ahead of the elections and we would like to ignore these leaders who divide us,” said Dua.   At the same time, in one of his statements, Dhirendra Shastri told the media that he never spoke anything against any religion. Appreciating the state government for its efforts to eradicate drugs, Shastri said that his only concern was that there should be no drugs and religious conversions. “Hindus and Sikhs must visit temples and gurdwaras, what is the need to visit some other place?” he asked without taking the name of any religion.Notably, the religious leader is in the city for the past five days for a religious event, which was largely attended by many leaders, especially those in the BJP. Even the “kalash yatra” of women, organised under the leadership of Bageshwar Dham leader got tremendous response with senior BJP female office-bearers taking part in it.  The five-day programme of the leader ends today.