Bengaluru: Fiery journalist Gauri Lankesh, who was shot dead by an unknown assailant outside her home last month, has been presented the Anna Politkovskaya Award - 2017 posthumously along with Pakistani activist, Gulalai Ismail, who is fighting Islamic extremism in her country.
A Russian forum, Reach All Women in War (RAW in WAR), has been giving the award to women, who stand for human rights and justice in war and conflict zones around the world since 2007. The international award is named after Russian journalist, Anna Politkovskaya, who was killed in 2006 in Moscow for her courageous and vocal defense of the plight faced by civilians suffering in the war in Chechnya.
To mark the anniversary of Anna Politkovskaya's murder on October 7, 2006, and honour her and other women like her in the world, RAW in WAR annually presents the Anna Politkovskaya Award to a female human rights defender from a conflict zone, who stands up for the victims, often at great personal risk. Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest Nobel laureate, Malala Yousafzai, was conferred the award in 2013.
Ms. Lankesh's mother, Indira, said, "It's an honour for my daughter. We are proud that she has got the support of so many people." Her sister and well known Kannada filmmaker, Kavita, said that the award didn't belong to the family alone, but to everyone who stood for Ms Lankesh's struggles.
The family, which gave details of the award at a press conference here on Thursday, also said it was satisfied with the efforts of the Special Investigation Team(SIT) looking into her murder. Ms. Lankesh's brother and film director, Indrajit Lankesh, however, said the family did not only want the killer to be arrested, but also wanted to know what his motive was.
"I have lost my sister and it's been a month. All we want to know is why was she killed. Maybe, if the killer in this case is caught, the police will also get leads to solve the murders of rationalists, Dr. M. M. Kalburgi, Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar," he added.
Commenting on the notice issued to filmmaker A.M.R.Ramesh, who is planning to make a movie on Ms Lankesh's murder, the siblings clarified they would welcome such a movie, but not when they were still grieving and the killers were at large. "The notice was issued by my mother Indira, who felt it was not the right time to make a movie on Gauri. Also, also we don't want this case to become a marketing issue," Mr. Indrajit, who has taken over the running of the Gauri Lankesh Patrike that his slain sister ran, said.
