'Censoring The Kashmir Files an Attack on Freedom': New Zealand Ex Deputy PM

The New Zealand censor board had cleared the film, but decided to review its decision later.

A still from The Kashmir Files.

(Photo Courtesy: Pinterest)

The release of the controversial movie, The Kashmir Files, has been put on hold in New Zealand. The country's censor board, which had cleared the movie earlier, decided to review its decision after some community groups approached it.

However, former New Zealand deputy prime minister Winston Peters took to Facebook to hit out at the movie board and said that censoring the film would be an 'attack' on the 'freedom' of New Zealanders.

"To censor this film is tantamount to censoring information or images from the March 15th atrocities in New Zealand, or for that matter removing from public knowledge all images of the attack on 9/11," Peters wrote in the post.

"Terrorism in all its forms, no matter what its source, should be exposed and opposed. This attempt at selective censorship would amount to one further attack on the freedom of New Zealanders and people worldwide," he added.

Directed by Vivek Agnihotri, The Kashmir Files follows the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley in the 1990s. It stars Anupam Kher, Darshan Kumar, Mithun Chakraborty, Pallavi Joshi among others.