London, Sep 25 (IANS) Pakistan-born "Coronation Street" actor Marc Anwar has been fired from the soap for a racist rant against Indians on social media.
His comments come days after an attack on an Indian army base in Kashmir killed 18 soldiers. India claimed Pakistan was behind the attack, but Pakistan has denied it.
The Mumbai-based Maharashtra Navnirman Sena has demanded a ban on Pakistani artistes working in India.
Anwar, 45, who plays the role of Sharif Nazir in the British TV show, referred to Indians as 'b******s' and 'p*ss-drinking c**ts' on Twitter, reports mirror.co.uk.
On his account, he also wrote: 'Why the f*** do Pakistani artists want to work in f***face India? Do you love money so much?"
He followed that up by tweeting an image of a clenched fist before adding: "Ban #india movies in #PakistanisLeaveIndia. B*****ds ps drinking #cts.
The next targets were Indian Prime Minster Narendra Modi and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. In another post, he slammed India and called on Pakistanis to leave it. On Saturday, the actor deleted two of his most offensive tweets, which caused widespread shock.
His comments have been deemed "unacceptable" by an ITV (commercial TV network) spokesman.
"We are deeply shocked by the entirely unacceptable, racially offensive comments made on Twitter by Marc Anwar. We have talked to Marc and, as a consequence of his comments, he will not be returning to 'Coronation Street' with immediate effect," the spokesman said.
Anwar joined "Coronation Street" in 2014 to play the role of Kal's (Jimi Mistry) father in what was the first Muslim family on the show.
