Breivik badge was Varanasi company's last order

The badge Aslam Ansari made for Norwegian killer Andres Behring Breivik was the last order Varanasi-based Indian Art Company took. Ansari’s company got out of the business of making badges since then and is now defunct. Pawan Dixit reports.

The badge Aslam Ansari made for Norwegian killer Andres Behring Breivik was the last order Varanasi-based Indian Art Company took. Ansari’s company got out of the business of making badges since then and is now defunct.

At present Ansari is running a power loom.

His family, as well as the residents of the locality in which he lives, is upset at the oblique aspersions cast on him.

“Why am I and Varanasi being connected with the Norway killings? My entire family is disturbed after reading reports in a section of the media,” Aslam told Hindustan Times.

“It was way back in March 2010 that I had supplied just one sample of the badge to Breivik. After this, my company did not get any order for badges and I had to close it down,” he added.

It was just like any other business transaction executed through the Internet, Ansari said.

Ansari’s father, Latif Ansari, proprietor of International Insignias, is one of the leading badge exporters of the country. The Exports Promotion Council for Handicrafts, run by the union ministry of textiles, had felicitated Latif Ansari in 1993 for the high quality of his products.

“My family is in this trade over four generations. We supply badges to England, Japan and South American countries,” Latif Ansari said, adding, “the gruesome killing of innocent people in Norway has shocked us all. But how can it be connected with my son’s company?”

“Once I export badges, I don’t know where and how they will be used.”