SRINAGAR, March 12: Original footage from Kashmir's partition, including film of a historic speech by India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, were destroyed in a gunbattle with militants, an official said on Friday.
The entire film, video and audio archives kept at the Srinagar government's information department was reduced to ashes when the building caught fire during a militant attack on Tuesday.
"All the important events captured on camera and audiotapes after 1947 have been lost," a senior official at the information department said.
He said the department would contact the All India Radio and Doordarshan television to see if they had copies of the destroyed footage.
Major losses include film from Oct 1947 of Indian troops arriving in Srinagar to repulse incursions by tribal fighters.
The troops arrived after Maharaja Hari Singh, a Hindu who ruled the Muslim-majority region, acceded to India due to the invasion, giving up hopes of remaining independent with the end of British rule of the Sub-continent.
Also lost was film of Jawaharlal Nehru addressing thousands in Srinagar in March 1948 when he promised a fair deal for Kashmiris.
"If the people of Kashmir do not want to stay with India, we will not force them against their wishes," Mr Nehru had said.
Two militants were killed in the attack on the information department on Tuesday, injuring six troops before huge flames surged from the three-storey building in central Srinagar.
The paramilitary Border Security Force, which fought the militants with the help of police, said the attackers set the fire.
Witnesses, however, said the blaze was sparked when Indian troops launched a barrage of grenades at the building just minutes after rescuing civilians living in a nearby area where numerous journalists live and work.
"The irony is that the government never provided fireproof lockers for these precious films and tapes," the information department official said. -AFP
