Sacked Coronation Street actor Marc Anwar faces British police investigation for hate-crime after anti-India tweets

The police investigation comes days after broadcaster ITV sacked the Pakistan-born British actor “with immediate effect” from ‘Corrie’ because of his Twitter rant.

The tweets, now deleted, were first published as screenshots by British tabloid The Sunday Mirror. The tweets that attacked Indians over Kashmir issue included words such as “bastards” and “piss-drinking cunts”. The tweets came after the Indian army killed a militant in the disputed region of Kashmir, which is claimed by both India and Pakistan. Anwar’s Twitter rants against India also included a call for a ban on Indian movies in Pakistan.

Since then, Anwar has posted an apology on YouTube where he said he was sorry "especially to people from India" . He also posted an apology on Twitter saying: “I never meant to offend anyone, race, religion. #KashmirKillings makes me sad. Once again I apologise unreservedly.”

60-year-old Anwar plays the character Sharif Nazir since February 2014 on the popular, long-running soap Coronation Street.

In a press statement, ITV said that it is deeply shocked by the “entirely unacceptable, racially offensive comments made on Twitter by Marc Anwar”. The broadcaster sacked the actor following a talk with him. ITV has also confirmed that the pre-filmed episodes featuring Marc Anwar will be minimized until the character is faded out of the soap.

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