Say no to war: Journalists from India, Pakistan call for peace

The revered journalist community from both  India and Pakistan have come together for a mutual call for peace amid  rapid escalation of tensions between the two countries.

On Thursday, a joint statement  by journalists on both the sides of the border was released, in which establishment of durable peace is  stressed upon.

"We request our governments to urgently scale down these tensions. The rapid developments over the last two days are scary. If the temperature is not immediately brought down things could go out of hand," the statement says. 

"There are no issues which cannot be resolved through dialogue. We appreciate Pakistan PM Imran Khan's offer of dialogue and request the Indian government to take it up as soon as possible," it states. 

The statement further goes on to add, "We also appeal to Pakistan to treat the captured Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman with the dignity he deserves and also repatriate him as per the Geneva Convention."

"We stress that the costs of war are long term and take decades to recover from. Neither of our countries can afford them. We believe war cannot be a solution. We must keep trying to make our region a peaceful one for future generations." 

Journalists from India underscoring the message  of peace with Pakistan include   the likes of Jatin Desai, Jyoti Punwani, Gurbir Singh, Kalpana Sharma, Geeta Seshu, Smruti Koppikar, Priyanka Borpujari, Divya Rajgopal, Kajal Iyer, Anjali Mathur, Padma Prakash, Charumathi Sankaran, Sandhya Srinivasan, Sharmila Joshi, Ammu Joseph, Freny Maneksha, Norma Godinho, Rachita Prasad, Neeta Kolhatkar, Tanya Thomas, Ketan Tanna, Joel Rebello, Kalpana Pathak, Gayatri Shah, Carol Andrade, Jochelle Mendonca, Rupa Chinai, Hepzi Anthony, Samrat Chakrabarti,  Ritesh Uttamchandani,  Niloufer Venkatraman ,Rining Lyngdoh, Raymond Kharmujai, Megha Moorthy, Amritha Pillay, Megha Mandavia, Rica Roy,  Rosamma Thomas Pune, Dhamini Ratnam,  Sukhwant Basra, Chandigarh and Satyen K. Bordoloi. 

On the other hand, the renowned Pakistani journalists Raja Kamran, Aamir Latif, Fazil Jamili, Iqra Mujahid Baig, Rizwan Bhatti, Shoaib Jatt, Imtiaz Faran, Saeed Sarbazi, Arif Baloch, Siraj Ahmed, Ashraf Bhatti, Tahir Hasan Khan, Naseer Ahmed, Liaquat Mughal, Arbab Chandio, Khurshid Abbasi, Irshad Khokhar, Shazia Hasan, Akhtar Baloch, Waqas Ahmad Baig, Zafar Ahmed Khan, Abbas Ali Siddiqui, Saba Sultan, Mudasir Nazir, Masoom Ali, Asma Riaz, Sajid Malik and Kifayat Ali have also appealed for sustainable formation of harmony.