Dozens of people protested on Tuesday at the site of a six-decade-old Kabul cinema demolished earlier by the local government, citing its irreversible state of dilapidation.
The local municipality said the once-famous Cinema Park in Kabul’s Shahr-e-Naw district would be replaced by a “modern cultural centre,’’ without giving further details.
Footage of the building’s destruction went viral on social media, with Sahra Karimi, head of the state-run film-making institution “Afghan Film,’’ being forcefully removed after vowing to mount a hunger strike.
Roya Sadat, a well-known Afghan filmmaker, told dpa news that “the destruction of the building means that a lot of the people’s memories of the place have also been destroyed.’’
Others expressed satisfaction at the building’s demolition, with Kabul resident Ibrahim Mosavi saying that it had been “a place for addicts and gambling.’’
Cinema Park survived more than four decades of war and was among the few remaining cinemas operating in the city.
