Salim-Sulaiman’s new song dedicated to Peshawar massacre

Penned by Amitabh Bhattacharya, "Khalipan" was released on Friday.

Mumbai, Aug 24: The December 2014 Peshawar massacre that claimed the lives of 151 people, including 141 children, left a horrifying mark across the globe. Such was the impact of the incident on Bollywood composers Salim-Sulaiman that they have dedicated a new song called “Khalipan” to the memory of the victims(Read:Indian Idol Junior 2015: Niharika Nath gets eliminated from the show!)

“Our song Khalipan was composed after the 16 December 2014 incident, when 132 kids (sic) were killed in a school in Peshawar,” said Salim. “When we heard about the incident, I and Sulaiman thought, what if our children didn’t come home that day? What would we have gone through? The thought itself was not easy to digest,” he added in despair. Salim is of the view that terrorism is a “disease” and such gruesome incidents can happen and are happening everywhere in the world.

“This incident happened in Peshawar, but terrorism is a disease that can happen anywhere in the world. We have gone through such incidents earlier. Mumbai has seen a lot of this,” he said.  “In Peshawar, small kids were hiding under the benches to avoid the bullets, our song is inspired from that incident,” he added.

The composer also said that it would wrong to call the song a mere inspiration. “No, inspiration is the wrong word, it is a dedication. The song is dedicated to all the children all over the world, who have been sacrificed under the name of terrorism, mainly in Syria, Indonesia,” he said correcting himself.

The duo aims that “Khalipan” reaches to the real culprits who brought misery and despair upon the victims’ families.  “Our aim is that this video reaches to those who sponsor terrorism, in any country. We want to let them know what the families and parents of the children are going through. It is indeed very difficult, but not impossible,” concluded Salim positively. Penned by Amitabh Bhattacharya, “Khalipan” was released on Friday.