Kashmiri journalists''s novel ''The Collaborator'' released

Srinagar, Jan 30 (PTI) London-based Kashmirijournalist Mirza Waheed''s novel ''The Collaborator'', based onmilitancy and conflicts in the Valley during the 1990s, wasreleased here today.

Waheed''s novel, which has got rave reviews at home andabroad, revolves around militants, military, civilians and themain character is a village headman''s son, who is "TheCollaborator".

"It is an emotional day for me," Waheed told theaudience at the function here.

He said a book release function for the novel would beheld at Delhi on Feb 3 followed by a similar release in Londonon Feb 24.

''The Collaborator'' is a story a teenage boy "whohappens to be in a situation and is doing things which he doesnot want to do," he said.

"It is a tragic fiction, a tragedy," Waheed said.

This is Waheed''s first novel, who was born in Kashmir,studied in Delhi and is currently working as an editor in BBCLondon.

Valley of yellow flowers, the first chapter of thenovel, deals heavily with graphic details of dead bodies,which the author said was inspired by a real life event whenduring a crackdown, he saw bodies of men who had fallen in anencounter.

The incident, he said, haunted him for 20 years.

"I did not write about this incident but I createdanother setting on a border. I transported that incident toLine of Control (LoC)," he said.

Waheed, who has studied literature, said his writingwas influenced by Greek writer Sophocles and other Greekclassics.