Dilip Kumar shocked at Peshawar killings, calls it sinful

Mumbai, Dec 19: The 92-year old veteran actor was shocked at the news of the merciless killing of children at a Peshawar school. More so because that is his birth place before partition. He said that he longed to reach the parents of the children slaughtered by the Taliban on December 16. He is still believed to have his ancestral home in Peshwar.

Recalling his days in Peshawar, which was the cultural hub of the undivided country, Dilip Kumar is quoted to have said," I was born in the charming city of Peshawar in undivided India and I still have many special memories of the place. What the Taliban terrorists of Pakistan did to the school children in Peshawar is unforgivable and sinful."

He further added,"The massacre has wounded me beyond words. My heart longs to reach out to the parents who lost their sons and daughters in the worst crime any country has witnessed in recent years."

"I pray to the Almighty to give strength to the grieving parents to live through the trauma and horror and bear the loss," the actor said. "The time has come to crush and destroy such evil forces," he added.

In pre-independence India, Peshawar was known as a city that nurtured music, poetry and theater. Eventually in 1936, it became the first Indian state to have a radio station. Not only Dilip Kumar, but Bollywood's biggest personalities like Prithviraj Kapoor and Shah Rukh Khan have their roots in Peshawar.

Dilip Kumar shifted to Maharashtra in the 1930s as they had business interests there. He assumed the name of Dilip Kumar after he decided to join the Hindhi film industry.

OneIndia News