LAHORE: The Forman Christian College’s history department chairman Dr Yaqoob Khan Bangash has said Sunday’s Church blasts are an attack on cultural interchange, harmony and humanity.

The mosque-like architecture of the All Saints Church showed the harmony between Christian faith and the Pakhtun culture, he said at an event organised on Monday to host the celebrated writer, Intezar Hussain, who was in conversation with Dr Arfa Sayeda Zehra on “Myth, History and Story.”

The event began with two-minute silence in remembrance of those who lost their lives in the terrorist attack on Peshawar church.

Mr Hussain narrated various incidents which inspired him to write. Underscoring the need for honesty, he said a good writer should be comfortable writing in his or her surroundings. Giving the example of Josh Malihabadi, Mr Hussain said he (Josh) should have remained in India where he was so highly respected that he had direct access even to the prime minister. Coming to Karachi did injustice to Josh’s poetry, he said.

Stating that a good writer should also accept the influences he or she had been shaped by, he said Sir Muhammad Iqbal obtained all his knowledge from the West but then renounced it. “It was the West which enabled him to become ‘Allama,’ he said.

The seasoned writer and critic said he had learnt a lot from the life and teachings of Gautama Buddha. “The stories weaved in the discourse of Buddha were the greatest stories ever told”, he remarked and added: “I realised that Buddha was the real storyteller, and I was wasting my time reading Chekhov,” he said.

Dr Arfa said a good historian was one who connected the past with the present and this was exactly what Mr Hussain had done and that placed him among the greatest writers of South Asia.