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Arab News
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Arab News
From Pakistan to the Middle East: Art director Hashim Ali champions regional creative expansion
LAHORE: When one of Pakistan's most renowned art directors Hashim Ali landed in the Qatari capital of Doha earlier this year, he wasn't quite prepared for how much the city and its creative scene had transformed since he last visited around seven years ago. Ali, who directed a Pakistani fashion and Sufi music show at Qatar's Museum of Islamic Art in January, was mesmerized by the cultural transformation in the Gulf nation, balancing its traditional heritage with modernization and global influences. In recent years, Qatar has established numerous museums, art galleries, and heritage centers, including the Museum of Islamic Art, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, and the National Museum of Qatar. The country has also emerged as a major player in the global art world, with significant investments in the arts and culture sector. Looking at the transformation, Ali said the time was ripe for Pakistani designers and artists to expand their reach to the Gulf, where cultural overlaps and a hunger for diverse aesthetics are reshaping creative industries. 'Everybody who asks me that we want to expand our business, I say expand to the Middle East because the way that region is growing, it's not just the buildings, it's the mindset and the heart,' Ali, who provides production design, art direction and styling services to various industries in Pakistan, told Arab News. The 34-year-old art director, who graduated in Visual Communication Design from Lahore's National College of Arts (NCA), said his experience in Doha was quite 'empowering' as he was able to present his hometown of Lahore to the world. 'You had this showcase of Pakistan, and the entire space was turned into a Chahar Bagh [Persian quadrilateral garden] for the night with oil lamps and flowers, all the napkins were hand-done from Lahore, we got block printers involved who did the Mughal motifs on them,' Ali said. 'The entire experience was so almost empowering that you are bringing parts of Lahore to the world and you're showing the world that we just not only do Sufi music, we do great fashion of different kinds.' Ali, known for creating intricate and stunning sets, said Middle Eastern creatives responded to Pakistani culture because of the cultural and religious similarities between the two regions. 'So, the collaboration, it's set in stone that it's going to happen,' he added.
The Independent
09-06-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
‘This is not justice': Father laments after court acquits 12 men accused of killing his sons during Delhi riots
In the dimly lit ground floor of his small house in northeast Delhi 's Mustafabad, Babu Khan sits hunched in a plastic chair as the air fills with the rhythmic clicking of sewing machines operated by his wife and daughter. Together, on a good day, they earn up to Rs500 (£4.25) but on some days, nothing. The family's monthly income rarely touches Rs7,000 (£60.50). It's daytime but sunlight barely filters in, making it hard to tell day from night indoors. The main door is the sole source of natural light in the room, which opens into a narrow, 500m alleyway no wider than three feet. This is the world left behind by Aamir Ali and his brother Hashim Ali whose bodies were found in a drain near Bhagirathi Vihar on 27 February 2020 following riots in the national capital. In a set of rulings related to one of the deadliest episodes of religious violence in India, a Delhi court recently acquitted 18 people accused of killing Muslim men, including the Ali brothers, during the riots. For the family of Aamir and Hashim, the ruling is the latest blow in their long quest for justice – a wait they now fear may never end. Over three days of bloodshed, at least 53 people, mostly Muslims, were killed and more than 200 injured as mobs laid siege to Muslim neighbourhoods, burning homes, shops and mosques in what survivors and rights groups have since called a pogrom. The trigger for the riots was a citizenship law introduced in 2019 that critics say marginalises India's Muslim minority. Clashes broke out between those opposing the citizenship law and those supporting it with Hindus and Muslims both blaming each other for starting the riots. Five years later, a court has thrown out murder charges in three of the cases, citing insufficient or inconsistent evidence, including WhatsApp group chats that investigators presented as confessions but the presiding judge dismissed as boastful rather than factual in a series of orders delivered in mid-May. Those acquitted included 12 men charged with killing Aamir, and another Muslim man named Akil Ahmed, whose body was recovered from the same drain. These 12 men were previously acquitted in April in the murder of Hashim and in March of two other Muslim men in separate orders wherein same WhatsApp chats were presented as evidence, reported the Indian Express. 'I learnt about the judgment only on 13 May,' Khan, 60, says, his voice hollowed by grief. 'We are still fighting the fight. But everyone knows what a crime has been committed against us. We have not received justice.' 'This is not justice,' he emphasises to The Independent. 'We will appeal in the high court.' On 26 February, at around 9.15pm, Aamir had called his father to say that they were near the Gokalpuri neighbourhood and coming home. Minutes later, their phones were unreachable. 'We looked for them all night,' Khan says. 'Next morning, we went to the police. They called us to identify three bodies. Two of them were my sons.' Postmortem reports revealed Aamir had sustained 25 injuries, including severe burns, and died from shock induced by head trauma. 'My life has been miserable since that night,' Khan says, staring at the wall. 'I have been fighting death every day. I can't even walk up to the road. Who should I share my grief with? And what's the point?' The police initially filed a murder and rioting case at the capital's Gokalpuri station, later transferring it to the Crime Branch's Special Investigation Team. The prosecution alleged that a Hindu mob – chanting religious slogans and armed with rods, swords and stones – had caught hold of the two brothers, confirmed they were Muslim, beaten them, and thrown them into the drain. Twelve men – Lokesh Kumar Solanki alias Rajput, Sumit Chaudhary alias Badshah, Prince alias DJ Walla, Rishabh Chaudhary alias Tapash, Pankaj Sharma, Jatin Sharma alias Rohit, Vivek Panchal alias Nandu, Sahil alias Babu, Sandeep alias Mogli, Ankit Chaudhary alias Fauzi, Himanshu Thakur, and Tinku Arora – were initially charged with murder, conspiracy and rioting. Two other accused – Pawan Kumar alias Lokesh and Lalit Kumar alias Rahul Chaudhary – were booked for destroying evidence and receiving stolen property. In late May, however, judge Pulastya Pramachala threw out the murder case saying there was no 'conclusive evidence' connecting the accused to the crime or establishing the presence of a riotous mob at the scene. The prosecution leaned heavily on digital data and chats from a WhatsApp group which had been created a few days before the carnage. One message allegedly sent by one of the accused, Lokesh Kumar Solanki, read, in Hindi: 'Your brother (referring to himself) killed two Muslims near Bhagirathi Vihar around 9pm and threw them in the drain.' The judge deemed the message boastful and not evidentiary. 'Such messages may have been to impress or boast among group members rather than serve as factual confessions,' he observed, stressing that extrajudicial confessions required corroboration. The judge concluded that while Aamir and Hashim were likely killed and their bodies dumped in the drain, but there was no 'incriminating evidence' to link the 12 accused to the crime. 'It can be inferred from the circumstances that it was a case of culpable homicide,' Pramachala ruled. He quoted multiple Supreme Court precedents emphasising that circumstantial evidence must form an unbroken chain excluding all other possibilities to justify conviction. In this instance, the judge ruled the evidence fell short. In a related ruling, Judge Pramachala convicted Solanki of promoting enmity and inciting communal violence through the WhatsApp group. He held that while no direct connection to the murders was proven, his messages fomented communal discord. For Khan and his family, the ruling offers no relief. 'We now know there is nothing like justice,' Khan says. 'But hope is all we have. And God will definitely listen someday.' His wife, he says, is chronically unwell. Aamir worked for ride-hailing apps and also dealt in scrap. His younger brother sold jeans. Between them, they carried the weight of the household. 'What did my children ever do to anyone?' he asks. 'You get joy from helping others, from feeding someone. What kind of people get joy from killing?' His voice breaks. 'They were worse than animals.' Judge Pramachala, acquitting the 12 men in the murder trial of Akil Ahmed, said the prosecution had failed to establish how, when or by whom the Muslim man was killed. His postmortem had confirmed Akil died from blunt force trauma. The prosecution alleged that he had been killed during a targeted attack on Muslims by a Hindu mob. As in Aamir's case, the police relied for evidence on WhatsApp chats from the WhatsApp group which they claimed the accused men had used to coordinate attacks on Muslims. In this case as well, the court found the prosecution's case entirely circumstantial. 'There is no evidence to even show as to when, where and how Akil was killed,' Pramachala ruled. Key prosecution witnesses either failed to identify the accused or denied having seen the killing. One witness said he saw a mob chasing two bikers and one man being beaten and thrown into a drain but could not confirm the victim's identity. This testimony, the judge said, 'on its face value, establishes that two persons and a bike were thrown into the drain' but 'is totally silent in respect of alleged incident with deceased herein'. The prosecution also relied on statements from police personnel and WhatsApp chats attributed to accused Lokesh Solanki. The judge said these chats did not name any specific victim or mention Akil and dismissed them as inadequate to establish guilt. Testimony from a policeman who claimed to have overheard rioters naming some of the accused was also rejected as hearsay. The court further ruled on the charge of receiving stolen property. Accused Munesh Kumar had in his possession a mobile phone previously used by Akil. Prosecutors alleged it had been stolen after the murder. However, Pramachala said that no effort had been made to trace the phone's purchase or prove Kumar knew it was stolen. "Mere possession of stolen property does not establish guilt,' the judge said. In another judgment related to the 2020 carnage, Pramachala acquitted six men accused of murdering a young Muslim man named Shahbaz. He ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove the men were part of the mob that beat and burned Shahbaz alive. Shahbaz, 22, was last heard from on the afternoon of 25 February 2020, when he phoned his brother, Matloob, from Karawal Nagar in northeast Delhi. The area was engulfed in violence, sparked by protests over the controversial law introduced by prime minister Narendra Modi's government. When Matloob tried calling back at 3pm, the phone was switched off. Shahbaz never reached home. His charred remains – only his skull and pelvic bones could be identified– were discovered by police officer Naveen Kumar near a rubbish dump on Pusta Road. His identity was later confirmed by DNA testing. One witness said he saw a Muslim boy being attacked and set on fire by a group of Hindu men near the dump yard. Another said he had seen a mob and the burned body in the same location. But the court found no evidence that tied the six accused – Aman, Vikram alias Vicky, Rahul Sharma, Ravi Sharma, Dinesh Sharma and Ranjeet Rana – to the mob responsible. The prosecution's key witnesses either failed to identify the accused or retracted their earlier statements. Two individuals cited as having heard extrajudicial confessions also turned hostile. Aamir has left behind three daughters, the youngest of whom was born after his death. 'What do we tell them?' Khan asks. 'We used to console them for a long time but now they know the truth – their father was murdered.'
Arab News
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Arab News
‘The Pakistani Vibe': Inside the imagined worlds of renowned art director Hashim Ali
LAHORE: Tucked away in a quiet lane in Pakistan's cultural capital of Lahore, Hashim Ali's studio feels less like a workspace and more like a time capsule from the Mughal era. Large Persian rugs are spread out on the floors and ornate jharokhas overlook walls painted in beige and maroon and covered in wood panels and miniature paintings, creating a world suffused with nostalgia and opulence. Every corner of the studio reflects the vision of an art director who doesn't just design sets but builds atmosphere. The space is both sanctuary and stage, where centuries-old aesthetics come vividly to life in the service of modern, visual storytelling. One of Pakistan's most renowned Pakistani visual artists and art directors, Ali is a Visual Communication Design graduate from the prestigious National College of Arts (NCA) institute in Lahore. Over the years, he has come to be known for his work in fashion, film, and music and is celebrated for his creative vision and attention to detail, particularly in creating visually stunning and intricate sets. His ability to blend historic grandeur with modern maximalism has won him several accolades over the years, including the Fashion Art Director award at the 2024 Hum Style Awards and the Pride of Performance Award in 2021. In an interview with Arab News at his studio in Lahore's posh Gulberg neighborhood, Ali, 34, said his passion for visual storytelling came from a history of childhood bullying. 'When you are bullied, you have to make [up] stories, you have to read stories, so I would get lost in fairytales,' he said. 'I would just start imagining what this world is, what these people are, what is this fantasy that exists out of this world? It started from there.' The stories he read, full of mythology and folklore, led him to start thinking about his identity as a Pakistani and a South Asian. 'Then I was like, 'Why can't we rebuild these memories and these spaces and these places?'' Ali's own studio is a recreation of spaces of the past, a Mughal court in miniature — crafted not from marble and sandstone, but from cardboard, fabric, and imagination. With hand-painted arches, makeshift jalis, and richly colored drapes, the space evokes the grandeur of a bygone empire while laying bare its theatrical artifice. The illusion is deliberate: a paper palace blurring the line between history and performance and reflecting South Asia's enduring nostalgia for lost splendor and the way identity in the region is often reconstructed through fragments — of memory, of myth, of art. What one then sees is not just a recreation of the past but a reinterpretation, inviting a dialogue between heritage and reinvention: 'If Hollywood can create all of this [set design] and we think as Pakistanis that we can't do any of this, then we're at fault. Because we did create the Taj Mahal. We did create the Lahore Fort … If we could do it then, we can do it now.' 'COMBINED MEMORY' One of Ali's most cherished creations was the set for the song 'Pasoori,' the first Coke Studio number to hit one billion views on YouTube Music and the most searched song globally on Google in 2022, the year of its release. Ali, the production designer and art director of the set, crafted it as a communal space, with the bohemian aesthetic of the set, characterized by vibrant colors and eclectic elements, complementing the song's fusion of reggaeton beats with classical South Asian instruments like the rubab. Ali describes the aesthetic as 'the Pakistani vibe,' exemplified by a new generation that had grown up in the era of globalization and social media and was reclaiming public spaces and dressing up and conducting themselves in ways that merged their cultural heritage with contemporary elements. 'It's so interesting that now when I'm sitting and I'm scrolling on Instagram or TikTok and I see these reels of girls wearing either 'saris' and 'ghagras' and they're dancing in Lahore, in old Lahore,' Ali said. But the project closest to Ali's heart is hidden away in the winding, narrow streets of Lahore's historic Gali Surjan Singh near Delhi Gate. It is a concept store, Iqbal Begum, imagined as a tribute to his late dadi or grandmother, a mathematics teacher who passed away in 2014. The store has been built in a centuries-old home that Ali rented from a woman who has lived there before the partition of India in 1947 and the creation of Pakistan. The walls are adorned with framed pictures of Iqbal Begum and the shop strewn with things that belonged to her, including old table clocks and dial phones and a tub of Nivea cream, a bottle of Oil of Olay lotion, and a coin purse framed together. Ali remembered growing up surrounded by the stories his grandmother told him, including about the violence of the partition. 'She told me a story about how she lost her favorite pen and our house was burned down in front of her eyes and the sense of belonging started happening,' Ali said. 'From that story, this thing of holding on to objects, holding on to people, holding on to stories became very important.' The concept store is thus not only a way to tell the story of Iqbal Begum but also to create shared memories. 'So, for me, every time I tell a story, I'm passing on my memory to someone else, and when they go and tell someone, in a way, it's almost like my dadi is still alive,' Ali added. And the process is two-way, because people show up with their stories also and can connect with the items they see in the store: 'Then it becomes like a combined memory.' Ultimately, it all connects back to the idea of Pakistan for Ali and to preserving its national, personal and collective histories into tangible, emotionally resonant experience. 'I kind of equated it to the bigger grandparent or the larger mother, which is Pakistan, that slowly, slowly all these amazing things that Pakistanis and Pakistan has done, we're slowly letting them fade away,' he said. 'The idea from this dadi telling stories to a child has become about this child telling those stories or trying to tell those stories to the world and saying, 'Hey, we're Pakistan and we're a beautiful country and we do all these things apart from what you're used to hearing about.'.'
New Indian Express
06-05-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
2020 Delhi riots: Court acquits 12 in Hashim Ali murder case
NEW DELHI: A Delhi court has acquitted 12 men of all charges linked to the killing of a man identified as Hashim Ali during the 2020 North-East Delhi riots. Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala of the Karkardooma Courts cleared all allegations against Lokesh Kumar Solanki, Pankaj Sharma, Ankit Chaudhary, Prince, Jatin Sharma, Himanshu Thakur, Vivek Panchal, Rishabh Chaudhary, Sumit Chaudhary, Tinku Arora, Sandeep and Sahil. 'I find that in the name of circumstantial evidence, there are some fragments and pieces of evidence, which fall much short to point out towards any of the accused persons as member of the culprit mob,' the judge said in the order. According to witness accounts, the accused were seen carrying stones, sticks, swords, iron rods, and shouting slogans such as 'Jai Sri Ram' and 'Har Har Mahadev'. It was further claimed that these men were leading the mob and instructing others by calling out names. As per the FIR, they were allegedly involved in the murder of nine Muslim men after checking their identities. Public witnesses had reportedly seen the killing of Hashim Ali. The prosecution alleged that the group conspired to 'teach Muslims a lesson' for attacks on Hindus. They were said to have armed themselves with sticks, swords, firearms and more, and killed several, including Hashim Ali and his brother Aamir Khan. But the court found the evidence lacking in terms of identifying any of the accused as part of the mob that stopped the two brothers. 'In fact, except for PW1, no other witness claimed having seen any incident, which could be connected with incident with Hashim and Amir,' the court noted. The judge also dismissed the prosecution's claim that WhatsApp messages linked Lokesh and others to the riots. 'However, I find that this plea is just a general presumption without support of substantive evidence. It shall be matter of analysis of other piece of circumstantial evidence, to see if the chain of all circumstances has been connected, to show involvement of Lokesh and others in the incident leading to death of Hashim,' the judge further said.
Indian Express
05-05-2025
- Indian Express
2020 Delhi riots: Court acquits 12 men accused of murdering Muslim man
A Delhi court on Wednesday acquitted 12 men who were allegedly involved in the killing of a man named Hashim Ali during the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots. The Special Public Prosecutor in this case had relied on WhatsApp chats from a group in which the accused persons had made 'extra-judicial confessions', stating that 'your brother has killed two Muslim men'. Referring to these chats, Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala of Karkardooma Court, in his order dated April 30, noted: 'Such posts/messages may be put in the group solely with intention of becoming hero in the estimation of other members of the group and it could be a boast also, without truth.' 'The argument of Ld. Prosecutor [is] that the chats show [the accused] Lokesh and others…, who were members of that group, were involved in the riots. However, I find that this plea is just a general presumption without support of substantive evidence,' the Court said. It acquitted the 12 — Lokesh Kumar Solanki; Pankaj Sharma; Ankit Chaudhary; Prince; Jatin Sharma; Himanshu Thakur; Vivek Panchal; Rishabh Chaudhary; Sumit Chaudhary; Tinku Arora; Sandeep; and Sahil. The FIR lodged in this case had alleged that the accused persons were involved in the killing of nine Muslim persons. Of these nine, two were Hashim Ali and his brother Aamir Khan. The prosecution had alleged that the accused had conspired to teach Muslims a lesson for attacking the Hindus during the 2020 riots. Witnesses examined by the prosecution had alleged that the accused persons were carrying stones, sticks, swords and iron rods and were shouting slogans like 'Jai Sri Ram' and 'Har Har Mahadev'. The Delhi Police had filed multiple chargesheets naming a WhatsApp group, named 'Kattar Hindu Ekta', in connection with the nine murders. Lokesh was the first person arrested in the case, and during his questioning, he named the other accused persons who were a part of the group. Between February 24 and 26 in 2020, the riots engulfed the Capital, leaving 53 dead, over 500 injured, and damaging property worth crores.
