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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Aaghaz-e-Dosti appeals for peace over escalation in ceasefire violations

PRESS RELEASE

Aaghaz-e-Dosti appeals for peace over escalation in ceasefire violations

The youth led voluntary initiative for Indo-Pak Friendship, Aaghaz-e-Dosti (li. Beginning of friendship) expresses concern over increased incidents of ceasefire violations between the two countries across Line of Control.

‘’We believe that governments of the two countries are capable enough to engage in dialogue with each other and should do their best efforts to reduce these incidents of violations and cross border firings till the extent that it should not happen at all. Such cross border firings often result as fatal to soldiers and civilians on both sides and both countries must understand the pain and suffering of these soldiers and civilians who are human being. ‘’

For countries like India and Pakistan where there is glorification of war and where common people love their country and its soldiers beyond all limits, such ceasefire violations are more dangerous. However, it is the responsibility of respective governments that without compromising to any glory or honor; dialogues, negotiations and diplomatic steps should be taken to avoid any loss to lives of soldiers on both sides.

Another constituency of affected people is of those who live in border areas. There are media reports available that even children have been died as they got trapped in these firings. Many houses have been made damaged on both sides despite a considerable number of population live on both sides of line.

Aaghaz-e-Dosti highly appreciate governments’ initiative during 2003 when ceasefire violations were brought down through a mutually agreed agreement between the two governments and their armies and we are highly hopeful that the same should be done by the present governments on both sides. Aaghaz-e-Dosti express its hope with the leadership of both sides in Governments, Diplomatic Missions and Armed forces who can definitely bring down these violations through initiating and establishing dialogue process. Meetings of two NSAs also bring some hope to us for its positive results are yet to come on ground and most required on border where lives of innocent people are on stake.

Aaghaz-e-Dosti also appeals with Governments of India and Pakistan to resume meeting of DGMOs of both sides and to remove heavy casualty arms and ammunition from front lines from both sides as its immediate availability and use would only result in more casualties. Being a most volatile start in 2018, escalated incidents of ceasefire violations must be brought down with efforts of governments and people. 

We at Aaghaz-e-Dosti believe that our efforts in fostering people to people relations would continue. We are the youth group who believe in ideology of peace and love. On one side, we are deeply distressed upon the disappearance of our member Raza Khan in Pakistan, however our hope still remains with the Government of Pakistan as we feel that Government would do its best efforts to protect peace workers. However, our commitment to peace is undeterred and without any fear and we feel that being voice of youths, who are in majority in both countries, our voice will be heard by leaders on both sides and effective steps will be taken in welfare of humanity and with the vision of long lasting relations of two countries. Doing this would save much lives from both sides and will be a real service to people. 

Issued by

Aaghaz-e-Dosti Team 

https://aaghazedosti.wordpress.com

News published on:

The Nation (Pakistan) https://nation.com.pk/02-Mar-2018/aaghaz-e-dosti-urges-pakistan-india-to-reopen-diplomatic-channels?show=preview?unique_ID=636504300008702949

Rising Kashmir http://risingkashmir.com/news/aaghaz-e-dosti-urges-india-pak-to-reduce-loc-tension

Kashmir Times http://www.kashmirtimes.in/newsdet.aspx?q=76867

Kashmir Pen http://www.kashmirpen.com/aaghaz-e-dosti-appeals-for-peace-over-escalation-in-ceasefire-violations/

Aaghaz-e-Dosti appeals to the Governments of India and Pakistan to Stop Ceasefire Violations

Aaghaz-e-Dosti appeals to the Governments of India, Pakistan to stop ceasefire violations and restore Peace across LoC

Photo Source: IB Times

We, at Aaghaz-e-Dosti are common people, mostly youth, of India and Pakistan, who are concerned about recent unfortunate developments across LoC wherein incidents of ceasefire violations have been widely reported on both sides. This exchange of fire has claimed lives of armed forces personnel and even of civilians on both sides. We are deeply disturbed by reports that border villages have been affected with such cross-border fire where even houses have been damaged. 

On the Indian side, it is said that over 1000 people have been evacuated from border villages to provide them with safe living areas, and approximately 87 schools have been shut including 51 in Nowshera sector and 36 in Manjakote and Doongi zone. With the shut down of schools, approximately 4600 students are affected.  It is said that firing from long range mortars and automatic weapons are still continuing. 

On the Pakistan side, it is said that unprovoked firing from India has resulted in the loss of civilian lives and injury to few others. It is said that the Indian side violated ceasefire in sectors mainly in Karela, Kotkotterra, Sabzkot, Baroh, Tandar, Khanjar. 

We need to understand that an entire population living in the vicinity of LoC is tramautised by such violations that can start at any point in time.

We appeal to the governments and security forces of both sides to find measures to stop these violations, to restore peace and to respect ceasefire agreement of 2003. 

We also firmly believe that beheading and mutiliation of soldiers must be stopped, and strict instructions to security forces by governments must be given against such acts.

Civilian population on both sides of the LoC desire and deserve peace, while their lives depend on the peaceful relations between the two nations. 

We believe that governments on both sides are capable of taking effective and positive measures in this regard. We remember that various effective, people friendly measures such as ceasefire agreement, dosti bus service, samjhauta express train service, cross LoC trade routes opening etc have been taken in the past by governments of both sides, and there are so many things that still remain that need to be done in the larger interest of the people, especially for those who are directly affected by such violations.    

We have all the faith in our governments and we believe that their concerned officials may have been working on restoring the peace. Yet, through this appeal, we would like to convey our request and the desire of millions of people, especially the young whose future needs to be respected and safeguarded, to strengthen the strife for peace across borders.

 Issued by

Aaghaz-e-Dosti Team

Statement by Aaghaz-e-Dosti over the recent ceasefire violation and killing of 5 soldiers on LOC

The major newspapers and newsportals in India have reported that there has been yet another ceasefire violation at LOC. Five Indian soldiers have been killed in the Poonch sector in Jammu and Kashmir in the midnight of 5th August.

However, Pakistan has denied the firing. We condemn the killing of the five soldiers. However, it is essential to note that there has been a recent increase in incidents by troops of both countries. Both India and Pakistan complain about ceasefire violations and deny their own role. On 27th July, both the countries had accused each other of a ceasefire violation. It is, therefore, required for a third party investigation.

This recent incident can also be seen in the context of the recent news on plans to restore peace talks when Pakistan’s president Nawaz Sharif and India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will meet in New York, next month. It is also true that such attacks have often happened when there is any positive development in the relations. So there is an urgent need to recognise and inquire this, who is behind these attacks.

We, thus, demand a neutral third party inquiry into the matter. The report should also be made available to people in both the countries as they bear the brunt of miscommunication and this constructed hatred. The same report should be released in the media of both countries.

We also hope that the media will not use it as another opportunity to proliferate hatred for the sake of their TRPs. 

RIP the soldiers