New Delhi, January 03: Haobam Paban Kumar's 77-minute documentary film 'AFSPA, 1958' again bagged the top prize in documentary section of the 6th Karachi International Film Festival 2006 held at Karachi from December 7-17 recently.

The film already bagged the top prize in the Festival of Documentaries and Short Films in Video for John Abraham National Awards held at Thiruvananthapuram in August 2006.The top prize of the Karachi Festival was shared by another documentaryFUEGO DE ANGEL (Angel's Fire) from Spain and Peru, directed by Marcelo Bukin.

AFSPA, 1958 was among 30 documentary films nominated for top award in the festival and was chosen the best documentary 'for its powerful relevance to multifarious issues of human and gender rights and community activism in the face of military and bureaucratic injustice, and its remarkable ability to engage the viewer cinematically and emotionally', the citation says.

The two documentaries shared a prize of PKR 120,000 (US$2,000 approximately ) AFSPA,1958 which candidly captured a series of incidents aftermath the killing of Thangjam Manorama by army bagged two international awards including critics award in the Mumbai International Film Festival of Documentaries, Short and Animation Films organized by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India at Mumbai in January 2006. The film also got three international awards in the 10th Ismailia International Film Festival held in Egypt in September 2006. AFSPA, 1958 is jointly produced by Haobam Paban Kumar and Bachaspatimayum Sunzu.

Saikhom Ratan is the cameraman and Sankha is the editor.

It may be mentioned here that the people of Manipur have been demanding repeal of AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act) 1958 from the State and the people's movement towards this intensified after the murder of Th Manorama by AR personnel.