ISLAMABAD (Staff Report) – While more than fifty writers and poets have returned their awards in protest against events of intolerance in India, Pakistani film director Khalid Hassan has also returned his Delhi International Film Festival (DIFF) award saying that freedom of expression must be upheld in India.
Khalid Hassan was honored during the film festival in 2014 for his movie Hotal.
Announcing the return of award, Hassan said that awards can be won in future but at the moment one’s right to express his thoughts is foremost to be defended.
Meanwhile Indian media reports have quoted founder DIFF Mr Ram Kishore Parcha saying as “we had honored the man for his work, and he is no one to talk about problems of India when we can tackle them ourselves.”
Khalid Hassan was selected for his direction skills and his announcement to return the award is an insult to DIFF which means that we had selected a wrong person, he said.
