Kalasha Peoples Call for Cultural Survival

SECOND DELEGATION LEAVES FOR NURISTAN

The second delegation from Chitral headed by Abdul Majid (former Nazim) has left for Nuristan province of Afghanistan to begin second round of talks to recover Teacher Athanasios Lerounis, who was kidnapped on 8th sept.
Abdul Majeed, a former union council nazim, headed the previous delegation and was the person who was allowed to meet Athanassios in person. The militants had demanded $2 million ransom and release of three important Taliban leaders.
Kalasha sources confirmed the departure of the negotiating team but did not give any details about the demands made by the kidnappers. The Kalash people in Mumuret Valley had vowed to launch peaceful protest movement after Eid for the safe recovery of Professor Athanasios. But now they are threatened not to do protests amid security for their own lives as small non-Muslim indigenous people in Pakistan.

TALIBAN DECLARE TERMS FOR RELEASE OF ATHANASSIOS

The delegation sent to Nooristan to speak to the abductors for release of Athanssios Lerunis have return to Chitral. The Taliban want 2 million $ ransom and release of three taliban in Pakistan.Mr. Athanasius has said that he is fine and had no any serious problem happened to him since the day of his crossing to Nooristan. “Now I am living with a group of Taliban and they are very hospitable and try their best to for my life and security”, the letter goes and adds that the behaviour of Taliban to him is very good. “I would like to thank all these people who try their best to solve my problem and special thanks to Mr. Majid and Mr. Nasir who came to Nooristan to visit me and to try to solve the problem”, the letter goes. “Please call my relative, members of the NGO Greek Volunteers and my Embassy in Islamabad and inform them that I am good in my health and do not worry about me”.This was for the first time that any confirmed news regarding his location has been received.

KALASH IN PROTEST FOR RELEASE OF ATHANASI

Kalasha are in constant protest for unharmed release of Greek Volunteers Teacher. Here are some of the Press release and Pictures from the Protests.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009

http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=24540
Prof Athanasios helped build schools, clinics, museum in Chitral

By Rahimullah Yusufzai

PESHAWAR: Thousands of Pakistanis living in Greece could face problems if Professor Athanasios Lerounis, the Greek social worker kidnapped from the Kalash valley of Bamburet in Chitral last week, was harmed.

Wishing anonymity, a Pakistani friend of the kidnapped Greek teacher told The News that there were around 80,000 Pakistanis in Greece and almost half of them were staying there illegally in the hope of entering other European countries. “The Greek people are very nationalistic. They would be upset that a Greek volunteer working for the welfare of the Kalash people in Pakistan was kidnapped. Their anger would be directed against Pakistan and Pakistanis in case Prof Athanasios came to any harm,” he said.

Nikitas Kaklamanis, the Mayor of Athens, has already written to Pakistan’s ambassador in Greece to protest the kidnapping and to demand urgent measures for safe recovery of Prof Athanasios.

The Greek Teachers’ Association, of which Prof Athanasios was a member and which had done some pioneering work in Chitral for the welfare of the Kalash people, has also expressed deep concern over his kidnapping.

However, the most vocal in protesting Prof Athanasios’s kidnapping are the Kalash people, more commonly known as Kalasha. They have held protests in Chitral city and in Bamboret valley, where the Greek social worker had set up the ethnological museum referred to as Kalasha-Dur in the local language. Some Kalash representatives, including women dressed in their colourful dress, also came to Peshawar to hold a press conference to vent their anger over Prof Athanasios’ kidnapping. The Kalash ladies were so bitter that they threatened to migrate from Pakistan to some other country where their community would feel safe and able to live in peace.

Prof Athanasios had earned the admiration of the Kalash people through years of hard work. According to archaeologist Zainul Wahab, who is head of the government museum in Chakdarra in Lower Dir district, Prof Athanasios first came to Chitral as a tourist in 1994 and visited the three Kalash valleys of Bamboret, Birir and Rumbur. He said the Greek teacher developed fascination for the Kalash, who are believed to be descendants of the soldiers in the army of the Greek conqueror, Alexander the Great. First through the Greek Teachers’ Association and subsequently from the platform of the non-governmental organization, Greek Volunteers, Prof Athanasios collected donations to build schools, clinics, water tanks, drinking water supply schemes, maternity homes, etc. More than 20 projects were completed with money from donors in Greece.

Finally the magnificent, wood-hewn Kalasha-Dur museum was built in Broon village in Bamburet valley with financial assistance from Hellenic Aid society of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs to showcase the Kalash culture. The museum had more than 2,000 objects depicting various stages in the more than 2,000 history of the Kalash people.

As the chairperson of the NGO, Greek Volunteers, Prof Athanasios was the moving spirit behind the effort to preserve and protect the Kalash culture. In an interview with the BBC sometime back, he remarked that the Kalash culture is a treasure belonging not only to Pakistan but the whole world. He argued that one way of preserving and protecting the Kalash culture was to put the Kalash people in a glass case and let no one enter it. The better option in his view was to empower the Kalash through education. He was surprised to know that the Kalash people too gave the highest priority to educating their children and preserving their heritage through an educated next generation.

Every summer Prof Athanasios brought doctors to Chitral to provide medical care to the Kalash people and also to Muslims, some of them converts, living in the green and beautiful Bamboret, Birir and Rumbur valleys. This summer too he had come on his annual sojourn and was hoping to spend the usual four months. But unidentified gunmen raided the Kalasha-Dur Museum where he used to stay, killed his police guard and kidnapped him. Villagers in the Pak-Afghan border areas saw him being taken away towards Nuristan province in Afghanistan. A jirga of Kalash and other Chitrali elders have gone to Nuristan as part of the efforts for seeking his recovery. The identity of the kidnappers isn’t known. They could be criminals and kidnapped him for ransom. Or they could be militants. Both the Afghan Taliban and former Afghan mujahideen leader Gulbaddin Hekmatyar’s Hezb-i-Islami group are active in Nuristan and the neighbouring Kunar province.

Zainul Wahab knew Prof Athanasios well, having met him frequently in Pakistan and Greece. He said the 50-year Greek social worker taught at a technical school in Athens and devoted most of his time collecting donations for the welfare of the Kalash people. “He wasn’t a missionary. He also wasn’t a worldly man. Prof Athanasios didn’t marry. I saw him dressed up in Shalwar-kameez with a Chitrali Pakol cap on his head roaming in Athens and showing pride in his dress,” recalled Zainul Wahab.

Prof Athanasios was so obsessed with the welfare of the Kalash people that he launched a campaign by writing to Pakistan’s ambassador in Greece and other Pakistani authorities to complain against Saleh Muhammad Khan, director of Archaeology and Museums, NWFP for illegally appointing outsiders instead of Kalashas on four posts at the Kalasha-Dur Museum in violation of their memorandum of understanding

“We the Kalasha Indigenous People of Kalasha Valleys HinduKush,Chitral Pakistan are Shocked, Threatened and Deeply grieved by sudden armed attack in our valley Mumuret and KIDNAP of our Greek Brother Athanasious Lerounis. We strongly Condemn & Protest indiscriminate Killing of Chitrari Brother, Abduction of Mr.Lerounis and Torture of Kalashaman. We demand Government of Pakistan to all take measures and means necessary for his immediate RELEASE and PROTECTION of Kalasha People”

Εμείς οι Καλάσσα,  ιθαγενής του  βορειοδυτικού Πακιστάν, της  περιφέρειαςChitral, έχουμε  συγκλονιστεί και είμαστε βαθιά    θλιμμένοι απ’ τη ξαφνική ένοπλοι  επίθεση και την απαγωγή του Έλληνα   αδελφού μας Αθανάση Λερούνη.

Επίσης, έντονα καταδικάζουμε, χωρίς διάκριση,το θάνατο του Chitrali αδελφού μας και τον βασανισμό ενός Καλάσσα κατά τη διάρκεια της απάνθρωπης επίθεσης .

Απαιτούμε απ’ τη κυβέρνηση του Πακιστάν αλλά και απ’ τα Ενωμένα Έθνη να λάβουν τα απαραίτητα δραστικά μέτρα για την άμεση ελευθέρωση του Αθανάση Λερούνη και την προστασία της φυλής μας που τίθεται υπό απειλή.

Athanasios Lerounis came to visit Pakistan in early 90’s as traveler, when he heard about”Kalasha” people in Northern Pakistan sharing common  historical & cultural ties with ancient Greeks .

He visited the Kalasha Valleys and fell in love with Kalasha people and their ancient culture. His mentorship contribution

In preserving Kalasha Culture & Heritage speaks for itself by the amount of work he did in Kalash Valleys.

Mr. Lerounis built the first Kalasha schools for th children in the three Kalasha valleys. Kalasha people call him BAYA & regard him one of their own.

The Govt. of Pakistan has honored him with various awards specially National Award recognizing his work in fields of Education, Health &Cultural-Preservation.
He made the first Indigenous Museum and Culture Center of Kalasha People known as ‘Kalasha Dur” with support of Hellenic Aid foreign Affairs Greece.

Unique Pakistan community under threat

Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP) is today arguably one of the most dangerous places in the world.
But while that may be true of regions where the Taliban proliferate, there are still areas of NWFP where life goes on as normal.
The most prominent of these is the Kalash region in the northern-most district of Chitral.
It is named after the Kalash tribe which has been settled here since time immemorialThe tribe, said to be descendants of Alexander the Great’s soldiers, still practise an ancient pagan culture unlike any other in this part of the world.
For centuries, the Kalash have been a people apart.
In modern times, they have become a major tourist attraction, but in so doing have also attracted the ire of Islamic clerics.
This has led to many of them derogatively referring to the Kalash region as Kafiristan, or “land of the unbelievers.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8083048.stm

Walk against Commercial preparation of wine in Kalash Valleys

www.chitraltimes.com

The residents of Ayun village arranged a walk against the commercial preparation of wine in the Kalash valleys of Bumburate, Birir and Rumbur and then its transportation to the other parts of the district. The village is situated in the entering point of the Kalash valleys. They were carrying placard with the slogans demanding an end to the proliferation of the menace of drug in the district. The walk ended in a public meeting in which the speakers said that the Kalash community are allowed to prepare wine for their domestic consumption only but its preparation on commercial scale must be stopped.

2500 world languages to be extinct KALASHA BEING ONE OF THEM: UNESCO

ISLAMABAD, Feb 24 (APP): Around 2500 including 27 Pakistani languages would be extinct with the passage of time across the world.
According to UNESCO, 4000 languages are spoken in the world and there are 199 languages whose orator have reduced to only ten or less than ten persons. While 177 languages have ten to fifty orators.

According to the report, more than 200 languages will extinct

soon from the world. Among other world languages, around 27

languages including Brahvi, Balti, Mayan, Porak, Batairi, Phalor,

Kalasha, Domaki, Jad, Kati, Khawar, Kundal Shahi, Marri, Wakhi, Chalaiso, Sapti and Rangsakari are facing serious threat to be extinct.

‘Batairi’ language is spoken in Kohistan district near eastern bank of River Indus and have 29000 orators according to the census of the year 2000, the report added.

‘Domaki’ is the language spoken by people living in Gilgit, Hunza Valley and Momanabad that has more chances to extinct as according to 1989 sensus, Domaki language have only five hundred speakers.

However, ‘Zangskari’ and ‘Sapti’ are the language that were spoken in India and Pakistan years ago have totally diminished but there is not a single orator of these languages today.

According to linguists, different social, demographic and political factors are all contributing to the rapid disappearance of languages.

The residents of Ayun oppose the use of commercial scale preparation of wine in Kalash valleys

www.chitraltimes.com

CHITRAL: The residents of Ayun village situated at the conflux of the three Kalash valleys of Bumburate, Birir and Rumboor have demanded of the government to impose ban on the distillation of wine on commercial scale in the Kalash valleys which is smuggled to the other areas of the district. In their public meeting here on Tuesday, the elites of the area Qazi Mohammad Yahya, Haji Mohammad Jaleel, Khalid Zafar and others said that the people of Kalash community are free to prepare and use the wine and no one has the right to interfere in the matter but they should not be allowed to make it a source of business. They said that taking advantage of the indemnity to the Kalash community by the law of the land, the wine is being prepared in all the three valleys on large scale and then smuggled to the other parts of the district. They said that grape trees are in abundance in the valleys and the Kalash people prepare wine of it for monetary gains which spoils the atmosphere in the whole district. They said that as the residents of Ayun know well all the elements involved in the business of wine as the route to all the valleys pass from Ayun. The speakers expressed their concern that if the business of wine is not controlled, then the new generation will go astray as the tendency of consuming the commodity is on steep rise. They said that the use of wine is becoming a fashion among the Muslim community members across the district and the commodity is supplied from the Kalash valleys. The speakers demanded that the Kalash people should be allowed to prepare wine only small scale using customary methods instead of large distillation units and boilers which give it an industrial shape. On this occasion, the residents formed an organization named Islaah-e-Muashira to organize and streamline the efforts of the residents of Ayun village to nib the menace and save the society from being perverted.

BO KIRIK DYITA KALASHASUM- HEAVY SNOW

Homa tal’ay bo kirik dyai shiaw hul’a.Phondr asta kharp thi shian hul’a.Chetraway ay thi onja telephun una asa mondr may hatya mahalum hawaw.
It has been reported there has been Heavy snow fall in the Kalasha Valleys. Road to valleys are damaged with the land-slides and Kalasha are braving one the worst winters in isolation.