Mushtaq bags Sahitya Akademi award for Aakh

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, December 5

Prominent Kashmiri writer and broadcaster Mushtaq Ahmad Mushtaq has bagged this year’s Sahitya Akademi Award in Kashmir language for his collection of short stories “Aakh”.

Mushtaq said it was a great honour to receive the award. “It is a great honour. Aakh is a collection of 18 short stories and was chosen from 13 books that had reached the final stage for the Kashmiri language,” said Mushtaq.

The book published in 2012 has been widely appreciated in literary circles and was conferred the best book award in Kashmiri by the Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages (JKAACL) in 2014.

Mushtaq is a well-known broadcast journalist and has also bagged ‘Akashwani Annual Award’ and ‘State Award for an outstanding media professional’. He is currently heading the Regional News Unit at Radio Kashmir, Srinagar.

He has served at Doordarshan Kendra, Srinagar, for nine years apart from having worked in other media units of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting as an Indian Information Service officer. For Kashmiri language, this year’s jury comprised former Head of Department of Kashmiri at Kashmir University Prof. Shad Ramzan, veteran writer and broadcaster Avtar Krishan Rehbar and prominent poetess and broadcaster Ruksana Jabeen.