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Two
Pakistani writers miss Kerala literary fest
Saturday, October 02, 2010 03:34:17 PM,
IANS
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Thiruvananthapuram: The third edition of the Kovalam
Literary Festival that began here Saturday will be attended by
only one Pakistani author - instead of three invited - because of
delay in home ministry clearances and outbreak of violence in
Pakistan's Punjab province.
The union home ministry had cleared the visit of writer Ali Sethi
and H.M. Naqvi to Kerala Sep 29, almost a month after the
organisers of the festival moved the government to clear their
visit.
Pakistani citizens are usually allowed to land in three Indian
cities - Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai - according to home ministry
norms, organisers of the festival said.
Young Pakistan-based writer Ali Sethi, the author of "The Wish
Maker", was unable to cross the border at Wagah checkpost in
Punjab Friday afternoon from where he was to arrive in New Delhi
via Amritsar and fly to Thiruvananthapuram Saturday night.
The border at Wagah was sealed at 3 p.m. Friday after a lawyers'
strike in Pakistan turned violent, resulting in a crackdown by the
police on protesters at Lahore.
"Sethi arrived at the border in Lahore at 2 p.m. but the police
stopped him. Had the home ministry cleared their visits earlier,
Sethi and Naqvi would have been here. The government sat on the
clearances. We had moved heaven and earth to get them,"
journalist-cum-culture activist Binoo John, who organised the
festival, told IANS.
"They were keen to come to Kerala," John added.
Ali Sethi is the son of Lahore-based editor of Friday Times Najam
Sethi.
Naqvi, the author of the acclaimed novel "Home Boy", based on the
aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in the US, could not "fly to India
in a day's time" because he was at that time in the US.
"We were not sure whether his visit would be cleared till the last
moment," John said.
Mohammed Hanif, the author of "A Case of Exploding Mangoes", will
fly to India early Sunday via Dubai as he holds a British
passport.
The high point of the festival that began at 9 a.m. Saturday was
the felicitation to noted Malayalam writer O.N.V. Kurup, the
winner of the Jnanpeeth award in 2010, and upcoming Dubai-based
Malayalee writer Saheera Thangal.
The focus of the two-day festival is on "Writings from Pakistan".
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