Eminent Kashmiri litterateur Margoob Banihali on Monday decided to return his Sahitya Akademi award as a mark of protest against the killing of Kashmiri trucker Zahid Rasool Bhat.
Bhat was attacked with petrol bomb when he was sleeping in a halted truck at Shakti Nagar area of Udhampur on October 9. He succumbed to his injuries at Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi on October 18.
Banihali is second Kashmiri writer who returned his Sahitiya Akademi award in protest during this month. Earlier, writer-journalist Ghulam Nabi Khayal announced to return his award.
Banihali has decided to return his award along-with trophy and cash of `1 lakh to show solidarity with the victim’s family and as a mark of protest against PDP-BJP Government in J&K and the BJP Government at the Centre.
Banihali has said after watching Zahid Rasool Bhat’s brutal murder and his funeral procession on Monday, he has decided to return the Sahitya Akademi award.
Banihali, a former head of Urdu Department of Kashmir University was awarded Sahitya Akademi award in 1979 for his poetry collection “Partavistan”. He is an authority on Kashmiri, Persian and Urdu literature.
Earlier, Khayal announced to return his award that he received for his collection of Kashmiri essays “Gashir Munaar” in 1975.