New Delhi: Salman Ahmad, Pakistani singer and face of the famous sufi-rock band Junoon, has withdrawn from a cultural function slated to take place in Goa “to protest the violence & blood-letting” across the Line of Control (LoC).
Tension at the LoC had escalated a few days ago after a Pakistani border patrol killed 3 Indian jawans and mutilated the body of one of them. Pakistan has claimed many deaths in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in retaliatory Indian firing.
Curiously, Ahmad had taken a stand that cultural exchanges between India and Pakistan must go on even during the recent controversy over the Karan Johar movie Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. The movie had ran into trouble after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) opposed its release for starring a Pakistani actor Fawad Khan.
During the row, Ahmad had written a piece in an Indian daily calling for “the sharing of culture” for it humanizes India and Pakistan. Banning them (the artists) pushes both from peace towards war, he had said.
However, even as the cultural icon has chosen to give India skip, Pakistan’s de facto foreign minister Sartaj Aziz has clarified he will be in India for the ‘Heart of Asia’ event in Amritsar on December 3-4.
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