Saturday, March 1, 2008

19th Jan. 1990 - Horror of Exodus staged in the play "TRISHNA" at Panjab University, Chandigarh

Hindustan Times
Our past records can be our nemesis, I murmured to myself. This was a day before Roots in Kashmir was to stage the play titled”Trishna”. When Roots in Kashmir last did an event in Chandigarh the turnout was a record. It was far higher then we had anticipated. It was the fear that we may not be able to do a repeat of our past performance in terms of sheer numbers who waited for 2 hours in the sultry heat for a repeat screening of “And the World Remained Silent”
The young or should I say adolescent team of RIK,Chandigarh had done everything to put my fears not only to rest but to sleep. They had contacted a theatre group to bring the play to the audiences. Many days were spent on finalization of the script. The artists were carefully chosen and rehearsals done to perfection. The presence of non-kashmiris as artists sent out a message. They had done what all of us had failed to do so far. They had managed to convey their pain and exile to their fellow Indians. It was what we need most “Empathy”.
There is very little that I can say about the play.The newspaper reports say it all.
It was a somber moment when a thousand candles lit to pray in the memory of those who were killed by terrorists.It was moment of peace and as tears rolled down Veer’s cheeks,the rest of team sang

Aaye jo aanee ho parlay,ho parvatmala bhi vilay,Ho chatone ke kshitij aur,
Nahee rok payenge …yeh prayaas,chu taron ko ham jayenge
Honge Aatankit ab na aur…jo aab awwaz uthayenge…to bujate dweep jalenyege
Haan naye shikhar…ha nayye laeh,bas yeh awwaz utahayenge…
Hum phir Kashmir ko jayenge…hum phir Kashmir ko jayenge

RIK thanks all the actors of the play.A special thanks is due to Ajeet Panwar for his direction that made the play a great success. Ishan the Sutradhar,without you it was all incomplete.

Amar Ujala

Dainik Bhaskar

Cry for Life...


Candle Light Vigil in memory of Terrorism Victims

View of the audience




Poignant play on plight of Kashmiri Pandits
Tribune News Service
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Artistes stage a play "Trishna" at Law Auditorium of Punjab University, Chandigarh, on Friday.
Tribune photo: Parvesh Chauhan
Chandigarh, February 29
Trishna, a play depicting the plight of Kashmiri Pandits, was staged by ‘Roots in Kashmir’ (RIK)-an initiative launched by the Kashmiri youth. The play highlighted the atrocities inflicted upon the minority community.
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The play, staged in three parts, depicted the real life incidents of three families that underwent the trauma of terrorism in Kashmir. In the beginning, Rajesh, who was to become a father in two months, was killed by the terrorists leaving behind his pregnant wife Geeta.
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The second part highlighted the misery of a father, who suggested his daughters to commit suicide in view of the growing exploitation of women in Kashmir. The last part showcased the plight of a woman crying for help to save her husband’s life who fell prey to the terrorism.
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The play was conceived and scripted by RIK members and directed by Ajeet Panwar. Ajeet, a non-Kashmiri member of the group, said, “Kashmiri students on the campus inspired me to come up with this idea.” Narrator of the play Ishaan said, “The presence of a number of non-Kashmiri students suggested the involvement and dedication to the cause of Kashmiri Pandits, who have been the victims of terrorism.”
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Nek Chand, who graced the occasion, said, “May you all get justice and return to your homeland as soon as possible.”

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

YASIN MALIK's HAWALA MONEY-INDIA TODAY REPORT

A report published in India Today clearly shows how Yasin Malik was involved in Hawala Transctions.How can they be so dumb as to now invite the same man to its conclave as a "youth icon".
Here is the report and the link.The report is damning...Someone is surely out of his head....to invite this monster to a prestigious conclave like this.
http://www.india-today.com/itoday/20020408/states.shtml

STATES: JAMMU AND KASHMIR
Money Games
JKLF chief Yasin Malik’s arrest raises suspicions about the rising reliance of separatists on hawala funds in the ValleyBy Ramesh Vinayak
ON THE DEFENSIVE: Malik, who was booked under POTO, says he was framed in the case
Police say the money was meant to fund activities that would hinder the state elections to be held soon.
On March 24, the Jammu police recovered $100,000 (Rs 48 lakh) neatly stitched on to the salwar of a young Kashmiri woman at a check-post on the Jammu-Srinagar highway. What was significant was not the quantity of money or the ingenuity in its smuggling. It was the sheer timing. The case came in the run-up to the high-stake battle by the A.B. Vajpayee Government to push the controversial Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (poto) through Parliament. The Government could not have asked for a more telling example to press its point home. Two days after the police booked Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (jklf) Chairman Yasin Malik in Srinagar, the intended recipient of the seized dollars, under poto, the terror bill was passed by a joint sitting of the Parliament.The dollar grab—the latest in a string of at least eight cash and hawala seizures in Kashmir and Delhi in the past three months—highlights the increased importance of foreign funding in sustaining militancy in Kashmir and the growing desperation of secessionists for hard cash to keep their operations running.
It also underlines the fact that the hawala route in the Valley is intact and active as ever.Intelligence officials in Srinagar believe the latest consignment was part of the funds Malik had raised during his trip to the US in July-September last year. But the funds could not be channelled to Kashmir in the wake of 9/11. It was only in March this year that Altaf Qadri, a pok-based jklf leader known for his proximity to Malik, got the money in Pakistan through hawala channels. Qadri had the money delivered in Kathmandu to Mushtaq Ahmed Dar, a former district commander of jklf. Dar used his fiancee Shameema alias Shazia Begum as a cover and the plan worked during their travel from Kathmandu to Jammu. Police say the JKLF planned to host a meeting of the Hurriyat’s parallel election commission—with members from India and Pakistan—in the US before the assembly elections due in September-October. It needed funds to finance the trip of the Indian members to the US. The money, the police say, was meant for that—a charge Malik denies. “It’s a dirty trick by the Government to thwart the Hurriyat’s proposal to prove its true representative character in a parallel election,” he says.But police officials sense a sinister dimension. Says ig (Kashmir) K. Rajendra Kumar: “The terror funds have a clear trail leading to Pakistan.” Pakistan has to fund not only militant groups and the secessionists—allegedly the Hurriyat too—but also the families of dead militants in the state. Only small consignments of cash come into Kashmir from across the loc. With militancy losing popular support, local financial help is hard to come by. So militants have come to rely heavily on hawala money. The terror funds from Pakistan get routed to the Gulf countries before being sent to India. “Unearthing hawala routes is an uphill task,” says a top police officer in Jammu. “Only one end gets busted in such operations, the other remains elusive.” According to intelligence estimates, Pakistan has been pumping in about Rs 6 crore every month for sustaining its covert operations in Kashmir. Police officials admit that they are able to seize only a fraction of this money.
The key to rooting out militancy may lie in stopping the fund flow. “Money is the oxygen on which militancy survives,” says a top intelligence official. Whether poto can increase the choking effect on terror funds is a million-dollar question.