Civil society role urged for securing lives across LoC

Islamabad: Pak-India peace initiators, human rights defenders and civil society activist should demonstrate at both sides of Line of Control (LoC) to secure life of innocent citizens.

In an interactive session on Pak-India peace building with an Indian Peace Activist, O P Shah, who is currently on a visit to Pakistan, participants discussed the options to strengthen people-to-people ties across the border.

“The indiscriminate firing from any side of border would result in loss of precious lives which should be stopped at the earliest,” peace activist said. He stressed the need to struggle for secular state to achieve peace in the region.

The session was organised by ‘Pakistan India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy’ (PIPFPD), moderated by famous literary figure and President PIPFPD, Kishwar Naheed, here at office of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Tuesday.

Sharing his views on the occasion, O. P. Shah said there is a dire need for concerted efforts to initiate trust building among both the nations which would help force both the governments to come on dialogue table. Dialogue is the only way for building peace among both the countries which should not only facilitate people of both nations but also the whole region would enjoy its fruit, he said. The Indian guest, who made almost 100 visits to Srinagar, shared that a peace dialogue should be conducted in Srinagar with the participation of both the countries besides the leadership of Hurriyat Conference to find out this long standing issue.

On a query by participants regarding non-issuance of a single visa to any Pakistani for last few months, the Indian activist stated that no political party of India in power could take decision alone for improving Pak-India relations without the consent of all other parties.

He also commented that the media of both the sides is misusing its freedom of expression by not portraying the real picture in front of masses. He also stressed for adopting non-violent behaviour from both the sides, for sustainable peace building. “Violence is not tolerated at any cost and it’s imperative to counter this ideology which sabotages peace process”, he shared.

He stated that each one of us should need to introspect for playing our role as peace advocates. He also asked for setting the trend of celebrating festivals of Muslims in India and likewise in Pakistan for affection, brotherhood and love for each other. Participants of the session also urged for better trade relations, exchange programme for students, artists and people from other walk of life to understand each other problems for sorting out long term solutions.

They also asked that few forces from both the sides do not in the favour peace for their own nefarious designs. Founding member PIPFPD Tahira Abdullah, renowned Human Rights activists including A H Nayyar, Free lance Journalists, Nabeela Aslam and Arshad Mahmood, famous writer, Fareeda Hafeez, officials of HRCP Israr ur Din from Gilgit, Khushaal Khan from Northern Areas and Muhammad Asif from HRCP Islamabad attended the event.