Place: Copenhagen, Denmark
Date: 13.11.09
Time: 22:08
I was about to hit the bed after a long tiring day, when Shashi coaxed me to write a blog about my first social outing in this country all on my own! And so here it is!
A few days back I was chatting with Judit, a friend of mine in Denmark, on Facebook. During the course of our chatting, she sent me a link containing information about an international documentary film festival happening in Copenhagen. She asked me to select a documentary movie and our first official social date was finalized.
So today, I went to watch the documentary film called ‘Fixer- The taking of Ajmal Naqhbandi’. But before entering the cinema hall, we straight away went to a coffee bar to wet our throats. We had conversations ranging from the culture of this country to the way life is back at my home in India. During one such conversation Judit shared with me the Danish way of sitting arrangements in the theatre. She showed me our movie tickets and asked me to read our respective seat numbers. I took some time to read it as it was in Danish but being familiar with Latin alphabets I read out “SÆDS – 3” on one ticket and “SÆDS -5” on other ticket. My first reaction was that means we will sit apart from each other? That means some stranger will sit between us? I was horrified at the thought but somehow I tried to hide my nervousness! Judit smiled at me and then went on to explain the Danish concept with the numbers. She told me that we were going to sit next to each other as the seats are divided as odd and even numbers. That means 3 and 5 will come next to each other instead of 2 and 3 or 3 and 4.
As a lover of new cultures, I politely appreciated their unique concept. I finally went in and sat in seat number 5, while Judit sat next to me on seat no.3. Soon I noticed that two foreigners entered my row and they seemed to be tad confused like me and Judit too was noticing it. Finally, she couldn’t see them so miserable and explained to them the system just like she had clarified my doubt earlier. They seemed ecstatic at this revelation and I had a hearty laugh too!
The movie started off finally. It is basically about the murder of an Afghani fixer/journalist named Ajmal Naqshbandi by the Taliban. Ajmal was just 24 years, when he was brutally murdered by the Taliban head of the Helmand province Mullah Dadullah. Ajmal’s only crime was that he had entered their territory illegally (and in my opinion he was Afghani…you will know the reason later). As Ajmal was also a fixer, his job was to be a mediator between journos from the outside world and the Talibs in the inside. One such foreign journalist he was helping was an Italian journalist named Daniel Mastrogiacomo.
They went to Helmand which is notorious for Taliban centers and activity. Taliban held Ajmal, Daniel and their driver as hostages. They then kept their demand in front of the Afghan government demanding the release of some Talibans who were in prisons of Afghanistan. The Talibans captured the video of these three hostages and broadcasted it on their website. In the first video, Ajmal sounds very positive. He assured his family that he is absolutely fine and soon he will be freed. Daniel of course sends a message to his wife Rosella and his family. In the second video, Ajmal seemed to be a little dejected but he expertly tried to hide it by saying that he was in the hands of Muslim people in a Muslim country and that he was sure they wouldn’t harm him.
The impact of the first video was the pressure from the Italian government on the Afghan government to release some Talibans. Finally, Hamid Karzai agreed to release five Talibans in exchange for the safe return of Daniel. The Talibans, as per their words, released Daniel intact. During this time, the media and the whole world were only focused on Daniel as he was a foreign journalist released from Taliban captivity. The world and the media conveniently neglected Ajmal – the Afghani. Taliban took advantage of this situation and demanded some more Talibans to be released from the prison. The then Foreign Minister of Afghanistan, Rangeen Spanta, plainly rejected it saying that if the Taliban comes and kidnaps him and demands the release of Talibans from the jail, then he’d rather be killed by them than release any more of their kind! This rude statement created uproar in the already Taliban infested country. People protested the statements and felt more insecure about their lives after that.
The Taliban, on March 6, 2007, gave an ultimatum to the government that if the Talibans were not released, then Ajmal would be killed. The government did not pay much attention to the demands. Meanwhile, Dadullah received a call from Pakistan to kill Ajmal instantly as it would create some needless tension in the Afghanistan government. As a result of this the Taliban separated Ajmal’s head from his body. When Hamid Karzai was asked, why the government acted on the release of Daniel and not of Ajmal’s, his answer was that since Italy had built roads for them they wanted to keep the healthy relationship intact.
Ajmal’s family and friends were aghast at this cruel incident. They are still trying to come to terms with the fact that their calm, polite and brave Ajmal met such a cruel fate. In fact, Ajmal’s father went on to say that he felt that Karzai himself was equivalent to the Taliban because of his decision.
Interestingly, this movie cleared certain misconceptions about the Afghanis, Talibans and the peaceful religion of Islam. According to the documentary, the Soviet Union and Afghanistan went into war around late 80s. The US, which was eagerly waiting for a chance to defeat the Soviet Union, created a new breed called Taliban. They wanted to make it a religious war. In fact, the University of Nebraska trained the poor children, people affected by the war and the refugees from those war torn parts of the country by creating a new religion called ‘Jihad’ – The Holy War. Also, the partner in their (the US) crime was the ISI of Pakistan. In this war around 1 million Afghanis and 15,000 Soviet soldiers died. Later, Taliban went on to become more demonic and finally kept their hands on their creator – The US. They were the mastermind behind 9/11.
The uncanny resemblance this sequence of events had with a story from Hindu mythology made me reflect. The tale of the demon Basmasura and Lord Shiva has a very similar tinge to it. Basmasura the demon, tries to kill Lord Shiva – his creator.
A lot of other aspects of this never ending feud came to surface. One could easily make out that the Afghanistan government is nothing but the puppet in the hands of the US for obvious reasons. This came out loud and clear specially in those press conferences where the Foreign Minister and the Prime Minister sounded so helpless and weak like abandoned orphans.
I do not care about which government does what. My only concern is, in this power politics, the sufferers are none other than the common people. In this war with Taliban, common people of Afghanistan, Pakistan and the refugees in those borders continue to be the worst affected. Also, affected were those innocent people who were working on that fateful day of 9/11 at the World Trade Center (and near by buildings) and those people on the hijacked flights. This thought haunts me day and night. This made me more insecure as a citizen of such a world.
Date: 13.11.09
Time: 22:08
I was about to hit the bed after a long tiring day, when Shashi coaxed me to write a blog about my first social outing in this country all on my own! And so here it is!
A few days back I was chatting with Judit, a friend of mine in Denmark, on Facebook. During the course of our chatting, she sent me a link containing information about an international documentary film festival happening in Copenhagen. She asked me to select a documentary movie and our first official social date was finalized.
So today, I went to watch the documentary film called ‘Fixer- The taking of Ajmal Naqhbandi’. But before entering the cinema hall, we straight away went to a coffee bar to wet our throats. We had conversations ranging from the culture of this country to the way life is back at my home in India. During one such conversation Judit shared with me the Danish way of sitting arrangements in the theatre. She showed me our movie tickets and asked me to read our respective seat numbers. I took some time to read it as it was in Danish but being familiar with Latin alphabets I read out “SÆDS – 3” on one ticket and “SÆDS -5” on other ticket. My first reaction was that means we will sit apart from each other? That means some stranger will sit between us? I was horrified at the thought but somehow I tried to hide my nervousness! Judit smiled at me and then went on to explain the Danish concept with the numbers. She told me that we were going to sit next to each other as the seats are divided as odd and even numbers. That means 3 and 5 will come next to each other instead of 2 and 3 or 3 and 4.
As a lover of new cultures, I politely appreciated their unique concept. I finally went in and sat in seat number 5, while Judit sat next to me on seat no.3. Soon I noticed that two foreigners entered my row and they seemed to be tad confused like me and Judit too was noticing it. Finally, she couldn’t see them so miserable and explained to them the system just like she had clarified my doubt earlier. They seemed ecstatic at this revelation and I had a hearty laugh too!
The movie started off finally. It is basically about the murder of an Afghani fixer/journalist named Ajmal Naqshbandi by the Taliban. Ajmal was just 24 years, when he was brutally murdered by the Taliban head of the Helmand province Mullah Dadullah. Ajmal’s only crime was that he had entered their territory illegally (and in my opinion he was Afghani…you will know the reason later). As Ajmal was also a fixer, his job was to be a mediator between journos from the outside world and the Talibs in the inside. One such foreign journalist he was helping was an Italian journalist named Daniel Mastrogiacomo.
They went to Helmand which is notorious for Taliban centers and activity. Taliban held Ajmal, Daniel and their driver as hostages. They then kept their demand in front of the Afghan government demanding the release of some Talibans who were in prisons of Afghanistan. The Talibans captured the video of these three hostages and broadcasted it on their website. In the first video, Ajmal sounds very positive. He assured his family that he is absolutely fine and soon he will be freed. Daniel of course sends a message to his wife Rosella and his family. In the second video, Ajmal seemed to be a little dejected but he expertly tried to hide it by saying that he was in the hands of Muslim people in a Muslim country and that he was sure they wouldn’t harm him.
The impact of the first video was the pressure from the Italian government on the Afghan government to release some Talibans. Finally, Hamid Karzai agreed to release five Talibans in exchange for the safe return of Daniel. The Talibans, as per their words, released Daniel intact. During this time, the media and the whole world were only focused on Daniel as he was a foreign journalist released from Taliban captivity. The world and the media conveniently neglected Ajmal – the Afghani. Taliban took advantage of this situation and demanded some more Talibans to be released from the prison. The then Foreign Minister of Afghanistan, Rangeen Spanta, plainly rejected it saying that if the Taliban comes and kidnaps him and demands the release of Talibans from the jail, then he’d rather be killed by them than release any more of their kind! This rude statement created uproar in the already Taliban infested country. People protested the statements and felt more insecure about their lives after that.
The Taliban, on March 6, 2007, gave an ultimatum to the government that if the Talibans were not released, then Ajmal would be killed. The government did not pay much attention to the demands. Meanwhile, Dadullah received a call from Pakistan to kill Ajmal instantly as it would create some needless tension in the Afghanistan government. As a result of this the Taliban separated Ajmal’s head from his body. When Hamid Karzai was asked, why the government acted on the release of Daniel and not of Ajmal’s, his answer was that since Italy had built roads for them they wanted to keep the healthy relationship intact.
Ajmal’s family and friends were aghast at this cruel incident. They are still trying to come to terms with the fact that their calm, polite and brave Ajmal met such a cruel fate. In fact, Ajmal’s father went on to say that he felt that Karzai himself was equivalent to the Taliban because of his decision.
Interestingly, this movie cleared certain misconceptions about the Afghanis, Talibans and the peaceful religion of Islam. According to the documentary, the Soviet Union and Afghanistan went into war around late 80s. The US, which was eagerly waiting for a chance to defeat the Soviet Union, created a new breed called Taliban. They wanted to make it a religious war. In fact, the University of Nebraska trained the poor children, people affected by the war and the refugees from those war torn parts of the country by creating a new religion called ‘Jihad’ – The Holy War. Also, the partner in their (the US) crime was the ISI of Pakistan. In this war around 1 million Afghanis and 15,000 Soviet soldiers died. Later, Taliban went on to become more demonic and finally kept their hands on their creator – The US. They were the mastermind behind 9/11.
The uncanny resemblance this sequence of events had with a story from Hindu mythology made me reflect. The tale of the demon Basmasura and Lord Shiva has a very similar tinge to it. Basmasura the demon, tries to kill Lord Shiva – his creator.
A lot of other aspects of this never ending feud came to surface. One could easily make out that the Afghanistan government is nothing but the puppet in the hands of the US for obvious reasons. This came out loud and clear specially in those press conferences where the Foreign Minister and the Prime Minister sounded so helpless and weak like abandoned orphans.
I do not care about which government does what. My only concern is, in this power politics, the sufferers are none other than the common people. In this war with Taliban, common people of Afghanistan, Pakistan and the refugees in those borders continue to be the worst affected. Also, affected were those innocent people who were working on that fateful day of 9/11 at the World Trade Center (and near by buildings) and those people on the hijacked flights. This thought haunts me day and night. This made me more insecure as a citizen of such a world.
