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Bamiyan declared first Saarc cultural capital

Last Updated 25 September 2014, 20:14 IST

Come April 2015 and India will lead South Asia to unite in Bamiyan, not only to denounce once again the Taliban vandalism that Afghanistan witnessed in 2001, but also to underscore ancient cultural linkages through the sub-continent.

Bamiyan has been declared the first Saarc cultural capital for 2015-16. This was decided in a meeting of the Saarc culture ministers, which concluded here on Thursday.

“The inauguration ceremony of Bamiyan as Saarc cultural capital will take place in April 2015,” the meeting resolved. Dhaka will be the next Saarc cultural capital for 2016-17, a culture ministry official said.
India will also send in its junior cricket team to Afghanistan in January 2015, soon after US pulls out its troops from the fight against Taliban, signalling New Delhi’s continuing commitment to the war ravaged country beyond its security transition by 2014 end.

The India and Afghanistan’s under-19 team will play a cricket match in Kabul on the sidelines of a cricket exhibition to be held by New Delhi in the neighbouring country as part of its “Cricket Connects” programme to show case cricketing heritage of South Asia.

“The cricket match will be organised in Kabul in collaboration with the Ministry of Sports and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI),” a senior culture ministry official V Srinivas said, while briefing the outcomes of the Saarc culture minister’s meeting.  

India has proposed to hold cricket exhibitions later in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. “While Sri Lanka has said that it can receive the exhibition in April 2015, Bangladesh has also given a very positive response,” he added.

The meeting was attended by Afghanistan’s Culture Minister Raheem, Bangladesh’s Asaduzzaman Noor and Sri Lanka’s TB Ekanayake. Maldives, Bhutan, Nepal and Pakistan were represented by senior officials.

The member countries resolved to establish a Saarc Cultural Heritage Committee (SHC) to preserve and maintain the  important monuments and heritage sites in South Asia as well as develop inventories of cultural assets in the museums and other repositories of the region.

India offered to host the secretariat of the proposed Saarc Heritage Committee, to be established on the lines of Unesco’s world heritage centre.

The Saarc countries unanimously adopted a “Delhi Resolution”, which was a roadmap for cultural relations in the SAARC region for the period 2014–17.They resolved to formulate proposals for trans-national nominations for the world heritage list and a regional list of heritage sites, declaring 2016–17 as the Saarc Year of Cultural Heritage.

“The member countries also resolved to recognise the impact and contribution of maritime routes and the monsoon as also other inland relations, especially through the centuries of trade, both maritime and inland, migration, colonialism, and modern statecraft, through enhanced interaction between member countries,” the ministry said.

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(Published 25 September 2014, 20:14 IST)

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