Appeal by People of India and Pakistan to stop ceasefire violations immediately and start dialogue

To:        

Prime Minister of India

Prime Minister of Pakistan

Respected Sir,

This is difficult time to see disturbances along Line of Control where reports are coming of frequent ceasefire violations by Pakistan and India that is resulting loss of lives of soldiers on both sides and also of civilians. It is also reported that people who are living nearby border areas are fleeing from their villages to save their lives.

It is said that this is first time when artillery used after the ceasefire agreement of year 2003. Reports are coming of civilians which include even school students who got stranded in their schools due to heavy shelling. Bunkers are being provided to villages. More than 400 incidents of violations have been recorded in this year 2018 only. Many schools have been closed, walls of schools and houses are damaged, agricultural fields are destroyed and studies are hampered. These all are in contrary to fewer such incidents in earlier years.  

We, who are concerned about these frequent violations see that role of diplomats and political leaders of both sides are extremely important and crucial in this time. Many think tanks and experts found that engagement through dialogues with each other always help in reducing numbers and intensity of such violations. Retired officers of security forces also claim that in the absence of any diplomatic engagement, armies of both sides are bound to answer each other in their own way.

We have example of effective engagements of both sides during the year 2003 when despite earlier present vicious atmosphere, Government of both sides together took the role for the verbally announced agreement that brought down numbers of incident sharply from 8376 incidents in 2002 to almost Nil incidents during 2004 and 2005 and then only fewer violations in years.    

We, who are citizens of India and Pakistan and support peace-building hereby appeal to Government of India and Pakistan:

• To start dialogue process between diplomats and political leaders of both sides immediately
•  To start frequent meetings of DGMOs of both sides immediately  
• To remove heavy shelling arms , artillery from front lines immediately
• To take immediate measures to stop ceasefire violations to protect lives of soldiers and civilians on both sides
• To bring a renewed ceasefire agreement by both sides in written form and with SoPs to guide security forces for steps to be taken
• To ensure safe living for border population, including opening of schools
• To provide compensation to farmers of both sides whose crops destroyed in shelling
• To provide special provisions , weightage and concessions to students whose studies affected due to shut down of schools for the reason of these violations

We appeal you with all hope that your effective steps would not only saves lives of people including soldiers, but would also develop a confidence among people on both sides that their leaders are capable to handle situation and care for people. We must remember that if dialogues can save even a single life, we must go on with dialogue without any ego. We are well wishers of democratic values and we want to see a developed, more engaged and peaceful South Asia which is not possible without efforts by Govt. of Pakistan and India considering Indo-Pak line as one of the heaviest military deployment and volatile region.   

Endorsed by people of India and Pakistan:

Aabida Ali	Activist	Karachi, Pakistan
Abha Bhaiya	Activist, feminist	Himachal Pradesh, India
Admiral L Ramdas	Former Chief of the Naval Staff, President Emeritus PIPFPD – Pakistan India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy and Patron – India-Pakistan Soldiers Initiative for Peace	Alibagh, India
Ali Abbas	Social Worker	Hyderabad, India
Aman Gupta	Software Developer	Hyderabad, India
Ammara Ahmad	Writer	Lahore, Pakistan
Amit Ranjan	Faculty Member	National University of Singapore
Anil Kr Singh	Academician	Faizabad, India
Anuradha Bhasin	Editor- Kashmir Times	J&K, India
Asha Hans	PIPFPD	India
Atiqa Shahid	Hum Sab Aik Hain	Lahore, Pakistan
Beena Sarwar	Peace Activist, Journalist, Editor-Aman ki Asha	USA
Bharat Bhushan	Journalist	New Delhi, India
Bhargavi	PIPFPD, India	Delhi, India
Bhawani Shanker Kusum	Sarvodaya Worker	Jaipur, India
Bina Sarkar Ellias	Writer, editor, publisher, international gallerie	Mumbai, India
Brig (Retd) Rahul Bhonsle	Retd Brigadier	Delhi, India
Chaman Lal	(Retd) Professor of JNU, Former President JNU Teachers Association (JNUTA) and Fellow (Senator), Panjab University, Chandigarh	Punjab, India
Chintan Girish Modi	Peace educator	Mumbai, India
Devika Mittal	Convener-India, Aaghaz-e-Dosti	New Delhi, India
Dr. Dhananjay Tripathi	Assistant Professor, South Asian University	New Delhi, India
Dr. Jagjit Singh Sandal	Retd Officer, Airport Authority of India	Hosiarpur, Punjab, India
Dr. Lenin Raghuvanshi	ED-PVCHR	Varanasi, India
Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat	Activist, Columnist and Founder – Jammu Kashmir RTI Movement	Srinagar, J&K,India
Dr. Sandeep Pandey	Activist, Founder-Asha Parivar	Lucknow, India
Dr. Walter Fernandes	Senior Fellow, North Eastern Social Research Centre	Guwahati, India
Harsh Narayan	Filmmaker & Creative Director	New Delhi, India
Hasnain Ashraf	Advocate, High Court	Punjab, Pakistan
Hayat Amiree	Social Worker	Delhi, India
Jatin  Desai	Journalist	Mumbai
Jawed Naqvi	Freelance Journalist	New Delhi, India
Kamayani Bali Mahabal	Advocate, Activist	Mumbai, India
Kapil Kak	Air Vice Marshal (retd), Member-Track-2 initiatives on India-Pakistan Relations	Delhi, India
Kavita Krishnan	Secretary-AIPWA	India
Lalita Ramdas	Citizen – Educator – Peace Activist	Alibagh, Raigad, India
Meena Menon	Journalist	Mumbai, India
Mohd Tahseen	Human Rights Activist	Lahore, Pakistan
Nadeem	Social Activist	Lucknow, India
Obaid	Activist, Journalist	Lucknow, India
Pamela Chaterjee	Activist	Almora, Uttarakhand,India
Prakarsh	Social Activist	Gurgaon, India
Prof Kamal Mitra Chenoy	Former Prof, JNU	New Delhi, India
Prof Anuradha Chenoy	Former Prof, JNU	New Delhi,India
Rafat	Social Activist	Lucknow, India
Ravi Nitesh	Founder-Mission Bhartiyam	Delhi, India
Raza Rumi	Editor Daily Times/Faculty Cornell Institute for Public Affairs	Newyork, USA
Reema Abbasi	Journalist and writer	Karachi, Pakistan
Ruchhita Kazaria	Aarcee Enterprises Advertising	Kolkata,India
S. K Singh	Social Activist	Faizabad, India
S. N. Subba Rao	Veteran Gandhian	Delhi, India
Saeeda Diep	Peace activist and executive director- Institute for Peace and Secular Studies (IPSS)	Lahore, Pakistan
Salima Hashmi	Artist, Educator, Curator, Writer	Lahore, Pakistan
Samir Gupta	IT Professional	Ghaziabad, India
Sarita Kumari Ghanerao	South Asian Women’s Network , Ex VP-All India Rajput Women’s Organisation	Pali, Rajasthan, India
Satyapaul	Secretary General- South Asian Fraternity	New Delhi, India
Sehyr Mirza	Independent Journalist	Lahore, Pakistan
Shahnawaz Alam	Social Activist	Lucknow, India
Shailendra	Journalist	Lucknow, India
Sharad Patel	Social Activist	Lucknow, India
Sheema Kermani	Founder-Tehreek-e-Niswan	Karachi, Pakistan
Sheharyar Riizwan	Journalist	Lahore, Pakistan
Sonya Fatah	Assistant Professor, Ryerson University School of Journalism	Canada
Sushobha Barve	Peace Activist	Delhi, India
Swati Sharan	Peace activist	Hamilton, Canada

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