ISLAMABAD: Condemning fascist Hindutva agents for trying to damage the cultural heritage of Kashmir, chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir Shehryar Khan Afridi has urged artists and human rights activists to work with the committee to help preserve and project the cultural aspect of the Kashmiri cause.

Mr Afridi expressed these views during a meeting with eminent actor, director and producer Shaan Shahid at his chamber in Parliament House here.

Mr Shaan was accompanied by a delegation of his colleagues.

Mr Afridi said that the Indian regime was making last-ditch efforts to keep Kashmir occupied and employing all dirty tricks to damage the identity and culture of Kashmir.

He said Kashmir had a unique and distinct culture and the Hindutva regime being led by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was now targeting Kashmiri identity and its culture.

Afridi says artists can contribute to efforts for highlighting Kashmir issue

He said the recent moves by the Indian government in occupied Kashmir had proved that its plan to make demographic changes there had a principal component of damaging the identity, cultural fabric and heritage of Kashmir.

“Hindutva regime has understood the fact that resistance runs in the blood and breath of the Kashmiri people and hence efforts are on to damage Kashmiri culture. Kashmiri heritage is also being targeted during military operations across occupied Kashmir,” said the Kashmir committee chairman.

He urged Pakistan’s film and drama industry to work on projects to preserve and project the true culture and heritage of the Kashmiri people who are under attack from the Hindutva regime, a Nazi-inspired fascist government, from all sides.

Mr Afridi said that in this age of information, cultural onslaught has been launched to target Pakistani culture and the federal and provincial governments would do whatever they can to preserve and protect it.

Ahsan Mashkoor, CEO of the tech-house Csquare, urged the committee to give distribution of content as much importance as content creation.

“Google is the greatest information aggregator in history, and two things win at google, volume of content and quality of content. Therefore, we need to ensure that we create an amalgamation of the aforementioned qualities so that our narrative remains relevant.”

Lauding the services of Shaan Shahid, Mr Afridi said that late Riaz Shahid, Neelo Begum and Shaan had rendered unmatched services, projecting the Pakistani film industry. He also called them pride and assets of the country.

In his comments, Shaan Shahid said that the Pakistani culture was under attack from all sides as the past regimes “have left our cultural front open”.

“Culture is the biggest exportable asset today. We need to create a culture-friendly society.

“We have to guard our cultural borders. We need to bring our artists to the national mainstream. We have done little in the past 72 years, but we have to take immediate steps to protect our cultural heritage,” Mr Shahid added.

He said his team would help the Kashmir committee and other stakeholders in building narrative on Kashmir and projecting the Kashmiri culture through films and drama.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2020