Sahitya Akademi award for Iftikhar Gilani
When the Indian intelligence agencies tried to frame Iftikhar Gilani on a bogus charge of violating the Official Secrets Act six years ago, they never reckoned on the brave Kashmiri journalist’s ability to strike back with his pen. The book which emerged from his ordeal, My Days in Prison, is a classic parable of modern India, an account of his malicious prosecution and incarceration in Tihar told with detachment and even humour. The Urdu translation of the book, Tihar Kay Shab-o-Roz, has now won the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize 2008 for Urdu. Congratulations, my friend! I am sure the Rs. 20,000 award will come in handy…
[You can read my introduction to Iftikhar’s book here.]
Siddharth Varadarajan 
Mea culpa!I, for a moment thought that this was the same Gilani who was in the parlimanent attack case.@Etranger: thanks for pointing out my dumbness!
@ kuldeep singh chaohanI have infinite tolerance for “wider variety of opinions”. But mistaking Iftikar Gilani for S.A.R. Geelani is not a question of “opinion”. It is plain, dumbass stupid. It is like if I assume you are that Kahlistani Chouhan from a few years ago because you have the same name. Or Prithiraj Chauhan. Or S.B. Chavan. So if you are the anonymous poster, at least read what you post before you hit that “SEND” button or else risk being ridiculed for your ignorance, he he.
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@ AnonymousCan you stop being a dumbass ignoramus for just a second?The Supreme Court is talking about S.A.R. Geelani and not Iftikhar Gilani.
Talking about your friend, everyone knows what Supreme court thinks about your friend< HREF="http://www.rediff.com/news/2005/aug/04geelani.htm" REL="nofollow">This report says :<> <>Geelani’s conduct at the time when Parliament was being attacked on December 13, 2001 was ‘disturbing’ to note and gave rise to ‘serious suspicion’ about him, the bench said. It also took note of the ‘untruthful pleas raised by Geelani about his contacts with Shaukat and Afzal.’<>And the < HREF="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2458514.cms" REL="nofollow">Supreme Court confirmed the same in 2007<>.Now that he is known for “untrhuthful pleas” and suspicious conduct, no prize for guessing the content of truth in his book!
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oorah!