Amit Kushari (IAS Retd)
To create goodwill between India and Pakistan the Prime Minister of Pakistan has released 350 Indian fishermen who were in Pakistani jails. This is despite the fact that Indo-Pak tensions show no sign of abatement along the LOC. Everyday heavy firing is taking place from both sides along the LOC. When Nawaz Sharief came to power in Pakistan about a couple of months back, he said that peace and good relations with India was his first and foremost priority. However, it appears that even this new civilian government (like all previous ones) is unable to rein in the Pakistan army and the ISI which continue to foment trouble with India. Five Indian jawans were recently killed by Pak intruders very close to the LOC at the dead of the night, when these jawans were perhaps taking rest. A few months ago 4 Indian jawans were beheaded by intruders from Pakistan and their heads were taken away. These incidents have shocked the Indians and there is a cry for revenge in India. All these developments are really very unfortunate and I am sure the Prime Minister of Pakistan would be as sad as the govt. of India is. Recently a dreaded terrorist of Pakistan, by the name of Abdul Karim Tunda has been arrested in India and the interrogations of this terrorist have revealed that India’s most wanted persons are moving around in Pakistan freely and living comfortably under the benevolent patronage of the ISI. All the lies are ultimately exposed. Mian Nawaz Sharief, therefore, has to take very urgent steps to restore India’s confidence and at the same time govt. of India too has to demonstrate its sincerity to Pakistan by taking credible steps for reducing the misunderstandings on Kashmir. The common men of both India and Pakistan are very eager to have friendly relations with each other and both the governments should strive o achieve this goal.
People on both sides of the Indo- Pak border are friendly and hospitable. The people of Lahore and Sialkot are almost similar to the people of Amritsar and Jammu. Their language and culture, literature and music, most social customs are quite identical. It is really painful that to visit each other we have to go through such rigid visa procedures. In the normal course we should have been able to just walk through the Wagah or R.S. Pura borders by showing our passports. We should be able to attend a wedding ceremony in Sialkot by travelling from Jammu in the morning and coming back by evening. Visitors from Srinagar should be able to visit Muzaffarabad and return by evening.
There was much less of hostility between the two nations in 1978/79, when I was Deputy Commissioner of Poonch. While making an on the spot revenue department inquiry, I along with the Tehsildar and Naib Tehsildar of Haveli tehsil had inadvertently strayed into Pak territory.I was dumbfounded to suddenly find myself in front of half a dozen young men in green salwaar kameez. When I asked whether this was Pakistan, one of the boys replied,”Jenab, aap Pakistan ki zameen par khare hain.” When they came to know that I was Deputy Commissioner, Poonch, they showed a lot of courtesy to me.
They gave me a chair to sit on and prepared tea for me. We had a nice chat for about 10 minutes till an Indian Brigadier came running from the Indian side to take us back. The Brigadier was agitated to see me drinking tea in Pakistan territory. “Suppose they had fired on you? ” the Brigadier asked. The Pakistani jawans broke into laughter and said,”Why should we fire on an unarmed person?” When I started going back into Indian territory all the boys continued to wave at me! I had clearly won over their hearts during the ten minute chat.
I remember a similar incident in Malaysia when I bought some clothes from a Pakistani shop. The shopkeeper was all sugar and honey and gave me substantial discounts. I felt he had mistaken me for a Pakistani. So to clear his misconception I disclosed that I was an Indian. I half expected that he would withdraw the discounts. On the contrary he smiled very warmly and exclaimed,”How does it matter? Is there any difference between an Indian and a Pakistani?” This was in the year 1997 — before the Kargil war. The same year, I had travelled to Scotland and my wife and I stayed with a Pakistani family in Edinburgh. We became very good friends in no time. The gentleman was a chartered accountant and his wife was a professor of Chemistry. The gentleman told me, ‘”Look how we became friends so soon! India and Pakistan could also become friends like this only if the Kashmir issue could be sorted out! Kashmir remains a thorn in our relationship.” I embraced him warmly and told him,”Inshallah, ek din uska bhi hal niklega–aap fiqr na karein.”
I have quoted these small incidents to show how warm man to man relations can be between the two almost identical nations. I feel the two Governments should take steps for easier travel between the two countries so that misconceptions between the citizens is reduced. The Government of Pakistan has to do something more to control the nefarious activities of anti India terrorists like Dawood Ibrahim, Hafeez Sayeed, Lakhvi and many more like them.
(The author is former Financial Commissioner J&K Feedback to the author at 09748635185 or amitkus@hotmail.com)
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