(Daily Times - April 20, 2005 )
INDIA-PAKISTAN JOINT PEACE MARCH: 22 INDIANS ARRIVE TODAY IN PAKISTAN
BY WAQAR GILLANI
LAHORE: As part of an India-Pakistan joint peace march from the shrine of Saint Nizamudidn Aulia in New Delhi to the shrine of Saint Bahauddin Zakariya in Multan, 22 Indians will cross into Pakistan at Wagah today (Wednesday).
The Indians will be accompanied by nine Pakistanis who had crossed into India last week for the march. The walk was contrived by an informal alliance of non-government organisations, including the Pakistan Peace Coalition and the National Alliance of Peoples’ Movements in India. Originally, 180 people were scheduled to participate in it. It will continue till May 11.
The Joint Action Committee for Peoples’ Rights, an alliance of over 30 NGOs in Lahore, on Tuesday chalked out a plan to receive the delegates at Wagah. It has also planned their activities for the three days they will stay in the city.
The group will walk to Shalimar Garden on Wednesday before wrapping up for the day. On April 21, they will reach the Lahore High Court and on March 22 they will leave for Multan via the Grand Trunk Road.
The peace activists have been invited to two dinners, one by the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) and the other by the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS).
Karamat Ali of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education & Research (PILER), one of the main organisers, told Daily Times that the Indians were originally denied visas. “They were only given permission to enter Pakistan after intervention by the federal interior minister,” he said
The Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi granted visas to just 22 of the 140 people who applied, he said. The Indian group is led by Dr Sandeep Panda[y].
Dr Panda[y], who is from Lucknow, proposed the march plan during a joint convention of the Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) at Karachi in 2003.
