The last day of the Kashmir film festival ‘Kashmir- Before our Eyes’ ended incident free on Thursday. But, it ended on a disturbing note for the curator and filmmaker, Ajay Raina, who found his laptop tampered with after he got it back from the police on Tuesday.
Mr. Raina was asked by the Banjara Hills Police to collect his laptop as it had been recovered on Monday night. But, when he went to the police station on Tuesday evening, he noticed that it was tampered with. “The settings were changed. I am suspecting the hard drive might have been cloned,” Mr. Raina said.
He was also informed by the Inspector that if a complaint is registered against the tampering, the laptop would have to be produced before the court. Mr. Raina lodged a complaint with the police about his missing laptop after the activists of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, youth wing of Bharatiya Janata Party, vandalised the L.V. Prasad Preview Theatre on Saturday.
The festival organisers also expressed consternation at the disruptions the screenings faced in the city. “We could not screen the award winning film Harud at Lamakaan because police wouldn’t allow it. Three policemen stood guard till we wound up the screenings instead of giving us security,” fumed Aparajita Sinha from ‘Moving Images’, one of the organisers.
Events such as film screenings become an excuse to parade intolerance and this is something that the city has to reflect on, observed film maker Sanjay Kak. However, he has some memories to cherish as well, particularly of the students from the UoH throwing their lot behind the festival.
