Art therapy for traumatised youth in Kashmir valley
the night, Tak and Saleena proceeded to the first floor. Later at night, Tak had a heated argument with Saleena after she praised Sheikh.
'They were about to retire for the night when the fight broke out. Saleena provoked Tak by praising Sheikh,' a police source said.
According to Tak's confession to the police, Saleena came rushing down to the ground floor even as she continued arguing with Tak. An enraged Tak hit Saleena on her head with a blunt object resulting in her death.
Laila and her siblings then got into a scuffle with Tak and blows were exchanged, the police said. Tak then called for Shakir Hussain, a Kashmiri who he had appointed as a watchman at the farmhouse a few months ago. Shakir and Tak first attacked Imran as he was the only male member present.
They later killed Laila and her sisters. ' Tak hit Saleena with a heavy object and she died instantly. Her death was witnessed by the three daughters, including Laila and son Imran. It was then that Tak decided to kill all of them,' the police said.
Roy said Tak himself sustained injuries during the scuffle and he still carries those injury marks on his hand and his head.
After killing Laila's family, Tak went to Khoti, about 8 kms from Igatpuri, and contacted a travel agent and hired two drivers to drive him to Jammu. Tak and Shakir first came to the Oshiwara flat in Mumbai and took away some belongings.
' We do not know what they took away as nothing valuable was found in the flat. Later, in two cars they reached Jammu,' Roy said. While the police are not ruling out other motives, they believe that the murder was not pre- meditated but happened in the heat of the moment. Late on Tuesday night, Mumbai Police crime branch teams recovered three human skulls in Igatpuri.
They unearthed three more skulls later. Some jewellery was intact in the human remains. He ( TAK) agreed to take us to the spot where he had disposed of the bodies.
' Our teams have been able to recover six human skeletons in a six feet deep pit,' Roy said. ' The pit was perhaps meant for an underground septic tank.
'There is a reflection of anger, rage and depression in Kashmiri art,' says Dena Lawrence, an Australian art psychotherapist, who this week displayed art work by her students in a Srinagar college.
Black was the predominant colour in almost all the paintings. The programme, 'A Path with Art: Expressing Untold Kashmir' attracted a large number of art lovers.
Most of the paintings depicted turbulence, suffering, depression and anger.
Dena, who is elated by the response to the programme, calls it an expression of transgenerational trauma.
'We are inspired to continue this work because of the response and the people's needs,' Dena, who visited Kashmir by chance in June 2010, when the Valley was in rage against the killing of teenagers, says.
'I met a Kashmiri in Kerala, who insisted that I should visit the Valley. I was scared but I thought 'let me visit the place'.
Here, I was touched by the degree of suffering and trauma. I saw a land of beauty and innocence alongside trauma and suffering,' she says.
'Kashmir is a land of mystics, poets and artisans and I wondered how I could use my skills as an art therapist to assist people in finding relief through art therapy,' Dena adds.
She talked to students of different streams and formulated a communitybased art therapy programme.
Now, Dena visits
Kashmiri youth have in the past taken up guns to express their anger. But these youngsters have taken up the paintbrush to express the turbulence, suffering, depression and anger that they have internalised over the years.
the Valley once a year, stays there for 20 days and gives intensive training to her students about colours and how to use them.
And once she is back in Australia, she communicates with her students online. Irfa Amin, who is a student of mass communication and journalism in Kashmir University, joined Dena's classes in 2011.
She loves to use the black colour. 'In my every painting you can see Kashmir. There is depression and anger but there is also hope. You can see hope in my paintings.
'I love to express my feelings through these colours. It gives me immense pleasure,' she says.
Saba Naseer, a student of literature, also loves black. To her, it is the colour of ultimate reality. Hina Arif, who is a student of fine arts at Jamia Millia Islamia, has painted a woman in the nude. The woman is shown sitting on the ground.
'The painting reflects the helplessness of the half-widow, whose husband has disappeared. She is helpless. That is why I painted her nude.
'She is also hopeless. That is why I used black colour,' says Hina.
© Daily Mail, London