Ahmedabad, Jan. 30: The artist fraternity in Gujarat is shocked at yesterday’s vandalism unleashed in a Surat gallery while the perpetrators threatened similar treatment of other “offenders”.

VHP and Bajrang Dal activists had targeted the paintings of Calcutta artist Chittrovanu Mazumdar for “nudity” and “obscenity”.

The VHP leader who organised the protest said they would continue to do what they did whenever and wherever “our religious sentiments are hurt”.

Mazumdar’s paintings were not pieces of art but were the work of a “perverted mind”, VHP’s Surat secretary Vimal Unarkad said. “We are against such artistic freedom. We would do whatever it takes to protect our culture,” he added.

Renowned painter Gulam Mohammed Shaikh of Baroda said it was a pity the owner of the Garden Gallery of Art and Textiles gave a written commitment to the VHP and Bajrang Dal activists that from now they would be shown the paintings to be put on display.

A leading artist of Surat who has been assisting gallery owner Praful Shah fears he could be the next target. The painter, who refused to be identified, said he had wanted Surat to be noticed internationally as a centre of art. That dream is shattered, he said. “I feel pity for those elements who vandalised the gallery. I feel ashamed. There is nothing more I can say.”

“Anyone outside the artistic fraternity should not be allowed to dictate what an artist should do and should not,” Shaikh said.