----- Original Message ----- From: Feroze Mithiborwala To: undisclosed-recipients: Sent: Friday, January 18, 2013 8:29 PM Subject: Statement in support Peace Process: Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace & Democracy (PIPFPD)
PIPFPD statement Peace process should not be casualty of dastardly killings Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace & Democracy (PIPFPD) is deeply concerned with the recent exchange of firing and report of the beheading of an Indian jawan and a killing of another along the Line of Control (LoC). The firing and killing of two Indian and two Pakistani jawans is highly deplorable and no society can accept such unwarranted and gruesome incidences. The reported attack has been at the top of the Indian news agenda since late on 8 January. Leading private TV channels continued to air onscreen captions such as "Pak's open aggression" and "Indian jawans brutalized". The tone was echoed by the most of the leading news papers. Some political leaders demanding “ten Pakistani heads” in return and Army chief General Bikram Singh’s comment that "We expect our commanders to be aggressive" added to the rising tension and calls for abandoning the ongoing negotiations with Pakistan. Prime Minister Monmohan Singh, who has been pushing for a rapprochement with Pakistan, despite opposition not only from the opposition political parties but also from within his ruling coalition, was forced to state that there could not be “business as usual” after the clash on the LoC. Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid said ties could not remain unaffected by the flare-up on the border. All this has the potential to derail the ongoing peace process resumed in March 2010. Since then, we have travelled far. A New Visa Agreement was drafted and a part of it was to be implemented from 15 January 2013. Senior citizens of 65 and above were to get benefit of visa-on-arrival at Wagah-Attari. Unfortunately, it is put on hold. Pakistani singers like Ali Zafar, Mekaal Hasan’s programme were forced to cancel. 9 Pakistani Hockey players were sent back. The performances of Pakistani theatre groups at the international theatre festival organized by the National School of Drama were cancelled. We sincerely believe that we need to investigate violations of Ceasefire in force since November 2003. LoC is by and large peaceful since then though ceasefire has been violated many times. But, they are aberrations rather than rule. Ceasefire needs to be implemented in letter and spirit. We are happy that the leadership of the two governments have reiterated their commitment to continue the dialogue process and the tension on the governments have decided to strengthen the mechanism for resolving the disputes on the LoC to minimize violations. We sincerely appeal to both the countries to take immediate steps and see such incidences do not occur in the future. We urge the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan to meet soon to resolve the issuef of cross LoC violations and take the peace process forward. We suggest immediate resumption of normal trade across the LoC and implementation of the visa-on-arrival scheme for senior citizens and further easing of the Visa regime to enhance people-to-people contact which is essential for building peaceful relations between neighbours. It is important to recognize that there are groups on both sides who want to derail the peace process. Greater contact between the people of the two countries will weaken these forces and take us forward to peace. -- Feroze Mithiborwala -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "humanrights movement" group. To post to this group, send email to humanrights-movement@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to humanrights-movement+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/humanrights-movement?hl=en.
