SRINAGAR, India: Indian police arrested a freelance French journalist in Kashmir for violating visa regulations, the city police chief said, after he was found filming for a documentary without permission.
Comiti Paul Edward was arrested late Sunday in the Kothibagh area of Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmir, Senior Superintendent of Police Imtiyaz Ismael Parray told Reuters.
Edward holds an Indian business visa valid until next December, but the visa does not permit him to make a documentary on political or security related issues, the officer said.
A case has been registered under the Passport Act and the French embassy has been informed about the arrest, Parray said.
Edward was shooting a documentary on Kashmir and had met separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, pellet gun victims and captured stone pelting incidents in Srinagar, said a senior police official, who did not wish to be named.
More than 3,800 people have been wounded and one killed by shotgun pellets since protests against Indian rule erupted in the disputed territory last year, with more than 100 left partially or fully blinded, official figures show.
“We called him to ask him about his activities, but he refused to present himself before the police. He was not authorized to film here because he was on a business visa. He was finally arrested,” the senior official said.
Edward had sought the defense ministry’s permission for filming in Kashmir, but was denied because he was on a business visa, said the police official, who is not authorized to speak to the media.
Kashmir is claimed in full but ruled in part by India and Pakistan and has been at the heart of nearly seven decades of hostility between the neighbors.
Indian police arrests French journalist after filming in Kashmir
Indian police arrests French journalist after filming in Kashmir
To infinity and beyond: Grendizer’s 50 years of inspiring Arabs
- 50 years after its creation, the Grendizer anime series continues to capture Arab imagination
- Arab News Japan speaks to creator Go Nagai, Middle Eastern fans and retells the story behind the UFO Robot tasked with protecting our planet
LONDON: Few cultural imports have crossed borders as unexpectedly, or as powerfully, as Grendizer, the Japanese giant robot that half a century ago became a childhood hero across the Arab world, nowhere more so than in Saudi Arabia.
Created in Japan in the mid-1970s by manga artist Go Nagai, Grendizer was part of the “mecha” tradition of giant robots. The genre was shaped by Japan’s experience during the Second World War, and explored themes of invasion, resistance and loss through the medium of science fiction.
But while the series enjoyed moderate success in Japan, its true legacy was established thousands of kilometers away in the Middle East.
The anime “UFO Robot Grendizer” arrived on television in the region in 1979, dubbed into Arabic and initially broadcast in Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war. The story it told of the heroic Duke Fleed, a displaced prince whose planet had been destroyed by alien invaders, struck a chord with children growing up amid regional conflict and occupation by Israel.
Its themes of defending one’s homeland, standing up to aggression and protecting the innocent were painfully relevant in the region, transforming the series from mere entertainment into a kind of emotional refuge.
Much of the show’s impact came from its successful Arabization. The powerful Arabic dubbing and emotionally charged voice-acting, especially by Lebanese actor Jihad El-Atrash as Duke Fleed, lent the show a moral gravity unmatched by other cartoons of the era.
The theme song for the series, performed by Sami Clark, became an anthem that the Lebanese singer continued to perform at concerts and festivals right up until his death in 2022.
By the early 1980s, “Grendizer” had spread across the Middle East, inspiring fandoms in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq and beyond. For many, it was not only their first exposure to anime, it also delivered lessons on values such as justice and honor.
Grendizer was so influential in the region that it became the subject of scholarly research, which in addition to recognizing the ways in which the plight of the show’s characters resonated with the audience in the Middle East, also linked the show’s popularity to generational memories of displacement, particularly the Palestinian Nakba.
Half a century later, “Grendizer” remains culturally alive and relevant in the region. In Saudi Arabia, which embraced the original version of the show wholeheartedly, Manga Productions is now introducing a new generation of fans to a modernized version of the character, through a video game, The Feast of The Wolves, which is available in Arabic and eight other languages on platforms including PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch, and a new Arabic-language anime series, “Grendizer U,” which was broadcast last year.
Fifty years after the debut of the show, “Grendizer” is back — although to a generation of fans of the original series, their shelves still full of merchandise and memorabilia, it never really went away.
