Indian filmmaker documents tortures in Kashmir
By: DANISH ZARGAR
SRINAGAR, Jan 21: If this could be some indication of the possible
change in the Indian civil society vis-à-vis Kashmir issue, an Indian film maker, has video-graphed the brutal tortures meted out to the
Kashmiris by the forces during the armed struggle.
Ashvin Kumar, an independent filmmaker who previously produced ‘Inshallah,
football’ and ‘little terrorist’, has come up with ‘Inshallah Kashmir: Living terror’, documenting the disheartening
stories of the Kashmiris, mostly ex-militants, who were brutally tortured by the forces. The film will be screened online on the republic day of
India, January 26.
The trailer of the film, produced from the footage taken during the shooting of ‘Inshallah Football’ back in
2009, has been already posted on the video-sharing site, ‘you tube’.
“..Most Indians like myself have been kept at a distance
from the trauma of our fellow citizens in the Valley of Kashmir. In the autumn of 2009 I travelled across Kashmir valley gathering evidence and
research material for the feature film I intended to make (Inshallah Football). I realised this was the opportunity that only a few have had to meet
the people of Kashmir and record their stories first hand,” the filmmaker explains in the trailer.
Kumar, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker,
produced and directed several films and documentaries like Dazed in Doon (2010); The Forest (2008); and Road to Ladakh (2003).
His recent films
were, however, denied the official consent for screening in public. Kumar, for instance, was forbidden to screen, exhibit or distribute his film
"Dazed In Doon", based on life in Doon School, by the Dehradun court. Later, his other film ‘Inshallah, Football’, based on the life of
Kashmiris, was first banned in India by the CBFC, and then given an 'A' certificate.
The trailer preview of the film, which the censor board
may also receive negatively, shows the ex-militants revealing how they were beaten ruthlessly; how their private parts were burnt and given electric
shocks; how their skin was scratched using red-hot-shears; and how they saw fellow Kashmiris killed with torture…
“…They
brought a man and hung him from the ceiling with iron chord around his wrists. In the middle of night we heard a sound and when we woke up he was
lying dead on the floor with his wrist cut off and still tied to the chord. The next day no one could even know that someone had died in the
night,” narrates an ex-militant in the film.
“…They used to put petrol in my anus; two bottles; three bottles. It was a
situation where I could neither live nor die,” says another ex-militant.
The film has already started to make an impression as could be
guessed from the comments posted in response to the trailer.
“Thank you for all the hard work and effort to show… The people around
the world about Kashmir and its people,” commented a ‘netizen’, crazeahmad.
“Good to see at least some Indians are
showing some sympathy instead of hate comments, I wish most Indians were like you, unfortunately most of them write hate comments and call us
'pakis' and 'traitors' without having the slightest idea of what is actually happening there and how they were suffering. Those comments only make
us angrier and increase the hatred,” wrote rebelx2x.
[Kashmir Times]
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