Overview

• Sinha opened the two-day National Tribal Festival by praising the Dard-Shina community’s sustainable lifestyle and contributions to India’s cultural mosaic.
• More than a dozen senior officials, including Minister Javed Ahmed Rana and MLA Nazir Ahmad Khan, joined local administrators and security chiefs at the Gurez Valley ceremony.
• The Shina Gilgit 88.8 FM station was dedicated during the inauguration and will feature weekly programs on tribal history, arts and language.
• Performances from Jammu and Kashmir and other states under the Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat banner received special appreciation for celebrating national unity through tribal arts.
• The festival builds on Gurez’s 2023 grid electrification as part of central initiatives to improve connectivity and socio-economic prospects for the Dard-Shina community.