Pakistan actress Veena Malik defends ISI tattoo for photo shoot

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Pakistani actress Veena Malik defended on Saturday her front cover photos for men's magazine FHM, where she appeared with ISI tattooed on her arm, but denied the photo shoot involved any nudity.

"In India every thing is referred to ISI (Pakistan's top spy agency Inter Services Intelligence)", she told Pakistan's Geo TV. "Even if a very small thing happens, they say ISI is behind it. Everybody blames ISI for everything."

Malik's statement has been opposed by editor of FHM India.

"We have video footage of the shoot as well as emails from Veena about how she's looking forward to the cover," Kabeer Sharma was quoted in a BBC report.

"The idea to have ISI written on her arm was mine, and it was Veena's idea to have it in block letters," he added.

The actress, however, says, the photos had been 'morphed'.

"He told me that (the tattoo) will be very bold and will cover the upper portion of the body, which it did not.

"I agreed to a photo shoot and having an ISI tattoo in a humorous way but I did not have any nude photos. My pictures have been morphed," said Malik, who shot to fame in Indian TV show Big Boss 4.

"They have the videos of the shoot but it would be in clothes and not without clothes", the actress said.

Also speaking to Pakistan's private Geo channel, Sharma said Malik had been 'very excited for this shoot' and the tattoo by the makeup artist had been 'in very thin font, but (Malik) asked to make a bold tattoo of ISI'.

Reacting to the controversy, Pakistan's Interior minister Rehman Malik said that the government would verify the nudity matter.

"If she has done so, she did wrong. But, these pictures are tempered many times and we will look into this issue," he told reporters.

Reports from Pakistan

Many in the country anticipate a backlash.

Malik has broken Pakistani social and national taboos in the past. She is a target for conservative ire and a heroine to some Pakistani liberals.

Conservative cleric Maulana Abdul Qawi declared on Aaj TV on Saturday that the latest controversy was a 'shame for all Muslims'. Farzana Naz, interviewed by the same channel on the streets of Lahore, said that the actress had 'bowed all us women in shame'.

Twitter commentator Umair Javed however called on Pakistanis to 'make copies of the picture and bury it in your backyard. This way, our grandkids will know there were some amongst us who lived free!'

Asked by reporters whether Pakistan would 'pursue the matter' legally, the country’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Saturday, 'First, let us see whether it is real or fake.'