Punjabi writer Ajmer Singh Aulakh returned his Sahitya Akademi award on Tuesday.
"I returned the Sahitya Akademi Award because writers are being attacked and killed to suppress their expressions," he said.
Aulakh told ANI, "I am protesting against the Prime Minister's silence over the recent killing of a man in Dadri over rumours of cow slaughter and the murder of author M M Kalburgi."
He also said that the issues and incidents have been increasing since the BJP government is in power.
"It is not necessary to mark the protest against growing intolerance by returning awards, people can protest in other ways also but I had this award and choose to return it to join the protest," he added.
Several prominent writers have returned their awards to protest against the government's 'silence' over the killing of writer MM Kalburgi and the 'rising intolerance' in the country.