Activist on historical journey for India-Pakistan peace

Pakistani national Star Malik is a peace activist. Unlike other peace activists who hold placards and message boards saying ‘End of War’, Malik has chosen a very different route to spread the message of peace.
Fast gaining recognition as the ‘Peace and friendship envoy for Pakistan and India’, Malik started a ‘peace journey’ from London on December 12, 2012 (12-12-12) at 12:12:12pm. Since then, Malik has been driving his peace car, which has travelled through 21 countries.
Shakeel Malik, which is his real name, is now in Dubai, promoting better and peaceful relations between Pakistan and India.
Malik who hails from Rawalpindi in Pakistan said that in his travels, he has seen scores of Indians and Pakistanis living peacefully and amicably in foreign countries. “However, in their home countries, the tension between the two nationalities is very thick,” said Malik, in an interview with journalists here in Dubai.
Malik wants to eventually take all lessons that he has learned from his travels to his hometown in Pakistan and also India. “I want to show everyone back home, as to how both nationalities are living amicably in foreign countries,” he said.
Malik’s journey started in 2007 when he was diagnosed with Kerataconus, a rare eye disease. After he was diagnosed with this condition, his vision became extremely blurry and he began listening to the radio a lot more as compared to watching television.
“At that time, I couldn’t see much and I used to listen to a lot of radio. I heard the story of a young couple who had to get divorced because they had an Indo-Pakistan marriage in the UK.
The families went through a lot of pressure, and for me, the story was very touching because I was going through a rough patch myself with the loss of vision,” said Malik.
After he was treated, Malik decided to take the road trip of his life. “I ship the peace car to wherever I am travelling and spend a few days speaking to different members of the Indian and the Pakistani community. I take videos of them and post it on my YouTube channel so that people back home can see it,” he added.
The journey is being undertaken in three phases. In the first phase, Malik travelled through 13 countries of the European Union.
The second leg of the journey included travelling through six Gulf counties (GCC), ending with the UAE, after which he will travel to Pakistan and India.
Malik completed the first two parts of his journey through 19 countries with passion, hard work and determination to promote peace between the people of the two countries.
During this journey, Star Malik faced considerable problems but he never gave up and completed the second part of his journey and came to the UAE on January 18.
All funding for his travels comes from Malik and he does not look for financial benefactors for the cause. Malik left behind everything that is familiar to him for the cause. Malik will stay in the UAE till February 5.