The much-anticipated video address to the Jaipur Literary Festival by controversial writer Salman Rushdie was cancelled at the last moment on Tuesday because of fears of violence as Muslim organizations staged protests outside the venue.

The decision to call off the video address by the author of the banned book, “The Satanic Verses,” came after a meeting between festival organizers and leaders of Muslim groups during which the protesters told them “even seeing his face is intolerable.”

Announcing the cancellation of Rushdie’s address, one of the organizers Sanjay Roy said police had told them that people had got inside the venue to “disrupt proceedings” and cause violence.

“Some organizations have threatened violence. This is unfortunate, but necessary to avoid violence. It is a fairly idiotic situation. We are once again stepping down from the fight for freedom of expression. We have been pushed to the wall again,” Roy said.

“It is unfortunate that we are being bullied again and we had to step down...We had no other way but to listen to save the people here, our children and everyone here,” he added.

Earlier, Assistant Commissioner of Police Virendra Jhala said the owners of the venue had conveyed to them they will not allow the video address fearing repercussions. After their meeting with organizers, the protesters also offered namaz at the venue.

The Rushdie session — Midnight’s Child — had been scheduled for 3.45 p.m. where the 65-year-old India-born author was to discuss his childhood, his work, problems faced in the past years and the adaptation of his novel, “The Midnight’s Children,” into a film.