French President Macron posters on Mumbai road amid extremism row? BJP asks MVA to explain

Amid widespread criticism of the radical extremism that has claimed numerous lives in France and a heated debate over French President Macron formally linking it to Islam, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra on Friday shared a viral video that shows a road plastered with posters of Macron, while vehicles zoom past over it. Patra claims that it is a road in Mumbai and criticised the Maharashtra government for allowing such an incident to happen, despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi extending solidarity to France against terror attacks. He asked why the French President, who has vowed to fight against terror, is being insulted in Mumbai?

READ | France Church Attack: UN Chief Antonio Guterres condemns 'heinous' knife attack in Nice

READ | France Church Attack: UN Chief Antonio Guterres condemns 'heinous' knife attack in Nice

Another gruesome attack in France

On Thursday, a Tunisian man armed with a knife and allegedly carrying a copy of the Quran attacked worshippers in a French church in the in Mediterranean city of Nice and killed three. This immediately prompted the government to raise its security alert to the maximum level hours before a nationwide coronavirus lockdown. The attacker was seriously wounded by police and hospitalised in life-threatening condition after the killings. Video cameras recorded the man entering the Nice train station at 6:47 am, where he changed his shoes and turned his coat inside out before heading for the church, some 400 meters (yards) away, just before 8:30 am. A knife with a 17-centimeter blade used in the attack was found near him along with a bag containing another two knives that were not used in the attack.

The attack was the third in less than two months that French authorities have attributed to Muslim extremists, including the beheading of a teacher who had shown caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in class after the images were re-published by the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which was targeted in a 2015 terror attack killing 11 people and ravaging its staff.

The French consulate in the Saudi city of Jeddah was also targeted on Thursday; a man claiming allegiance to an anti-immigrant group was shot and killed by police in the southern French city of Avignon, and scattered confrontations were reported elsewhere, but it is unclear whether they were linked to the attack in Nice. France's national police chief had ordered increased security at churches and mosques earlier this week, but no police appeared to be guarding the Nice church when it was attacked, and Associated Press reporters claimed they saw no visible security forces at multiple prominent religious sites in Paris. 

READ | 'India stands with France in fight against terrorism': PM Modi reacts to Nice attack

India stands with France

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and declared that India stands by France in the fight against terrorism. Earlier, India had strongly deplored the personal attacks against French President Macron following his tough stance on radical Islam, calling it a violation of the most basic standards of international discourse. In a strongly-worded statement, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had also condemned the brutal terrorist attack that took the life of a French teacher in a gruesome manner and asserted that there is no justification for terrorism for any reason or under any circumstance.

READ | France Church Attack: Macron calls for unity, says the country will not give in to terror