India-bound delegation of Kalash people looted in Lahore, passports snatched
Gul Hammad Farooqi
Chitral, January 31: A delegation of people from the Kalash tribe have been looted by unidentified people in Lahore. Their passports, laptops, other documents and valuables have been snatched. They were going to India via the Wagah border.
According to details, the 10-member delegation – 6 men and 4 women, were looted while they were going to India to participate in an international conference. Luke Rehmat, a member of the delegation, is a renowned figure in the Kalash valley, located in the Chitral district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Wazirzada Kailash, who was leading the delegation, told this reporter that they had obtained the visas for India after a lot of difficulties. He expressed anger and disappointment at the incident. He further said that the looters knew that the delegation members were from Kalash area and were going to India. He revealed that some of the looters were in uniform, without specifying which kind of uniform.
It is pertinent to note that the Kalash tribe is an indigenous group of people living in the Chitral valley, close to the Nuristan province of Afghanistan. They have a unique religion and cultural heritage and have lived in these valleys for centuries.
dear i think Nuristan is in Afghanistan.
o dear I think some people do not read before commenting < as in the Kalash living on the border ect .
This was planned by the Pakistan government , that is scarred to death that the Animist Kalash will demand there native right’s as the indigenous people of Chitral and they most certainly can not be exposed to India = who knows what could happen . The Kalash might even get justice instead of Islamic imperialism of Pakistan .
Pakistan is fortunate in having a culture that follow a proto-European culture unchanged in thousans of years and is more likely the remnants of the ancient Indo-European tribes marooned in the remote valleys of Chitral. I beg the Pakistani government to make concerted efforts to save the Kalash and their culture as once it is lost, it’s lost forever.