New Delhi: Award-winning Kashmiri filmmaker Arfat Sheikh was detained by US immigration authorities at Washington Dulles International Airport. He was travelling to Washington DC to speak at an event titled “Art as Resistance.”
The detention, which occurred on 24 September, has since triggered an online campaign on Instagram for his release. The page named FreeArfatSheikh is asking supporters to contribute to his legal fees and write to US representatives and senators, seeking his immediate release.
Speaking to The Independent, one of Sheikh’s friends said that as soon as he stepped off his flight, he was “surrounded and taken without a warrant by ICE agents” despite presenting his immigration papers.
“The filmmaker was en route to an Art as Resistance panel, which was scheduled to take place at Busboys and Poets in Washington DC, when he was held,” his friend said.
Sheikh is being held at the Caroline Detention Facility in Virginia. He was travelling with his fellow filmmaker and author Tara Dorabji when ICE officials detained him. Dorabji was, however, not detained and allowed to travel to the event.
His friends have taken to social media to talk about his detention. One such X account named @NajjiiMalik posted on X that his friend and inspiration Arfat Sheikh is in ICE custody right now.
“My friend and inspiration Arfat Sheikh is being held by ICE right now. He is the producer of the 2024 film Saffron Kingdom…His father Ghulam Nabi Sheikh is one of the most Famous Folk singers in modern Kashmir…,” the user posted.
Also read: Virat Kohli denies claims of Rs 5 crore payment for Premanand Maharaj ashram visit
‘Kashmir stories needed a medium’
Sheikh won the Best Feature Film award at the Wake Forest Film Festival in North Carolina for his film Saffron Kingdom. The movie is Sheikh’s debut feature film, produced by Daffodil Studios and focuses on Kashmir and families affected by prolonged conflict and persecution.
He came to the US in 2019 on a student visa and did a master’s in filmmaking at Georgia State University’s School of Film, Media and Theatre. After his master’s, he worked in the US. In 2020, he applied for asylum and obtained work authorisation while his immigration case is still pending.
“I started working for some non-profit organisations, and it entailed that I do some documentary projects… That’s when I got in touch with lots of people who had so many stories to tell,” Arfat said in one of his interviews on his movie. “I was like, there is so much happening in Kashmir that I didn’t know about, and I thought it needed some medium.”
Sheikh was born in 1984 and raised in Srinagar. His father was a celebrated folk singer and head of music at Radio Kashmir, Ghulam Nabi Sheikh, popular as Kashmir’s Mehdi Hassan. His father disappeared in July 2003 while travelling by train from Jammu to New Delhi. At the time, Sheikh was 16 and had just started his career as a radio jockey.
(Edited by Saptak Datta)