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creating war hysteria, not India: Pranab
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New
Delhi: Respo- nding to Foreign Minister of Pakistan
Shah Mehmood Qureshi's statement
on the need for de-escalating tensions between India and
Pakistan, External Minister Pranab Mukherjee said war
hysteria is being created by Pakistan itself. "My point
is we did not escalate the thing at all, we have not done
anything which can escalate the tension between India
and Pakistan," Mukherjee said at a press conference today.
"This is not an India-Pakistan issue, this is an attack
perpetrated by elements emanating from the land of Pakistan
and the Pakistan Government should take action against
it. We have not escalated any tension. So, where is the
question of our de-escalation?" he added. Raising the
issue of conducting a probe of the Mumbai terror attacks,
Mukherjee reiterated that India has provided enough evidence
to Pakistan for it to act. "We have been repeatedly saying
that we will give you evidences as earlier we have been
giving you, but please act on it," Mukherjee said. Relations
between India and Pakistan have deteriorated sharply after
India blamed Islamist militants based in Pakistan for
last month's attacks in Mumbai that killed 179 people.
Appeal to continue Samjhauta Express
Attari:
When Samjhauta Express train was started between India
and Pakistan a few years ago, it cheered millions of people
who were keen to meet their relatives after the partition
of India in 1947. Following the terror attack in Mumbai
last month, there is fear that the train service may be
discontinued. People fear that it may not be possible
for them to meet their relatives. The fear was visible
on many faces at Attari Railway Station. Yasmeen, a resident
of Hyderabad who has been married to a resident of Gujranwala
in Pakistan, is worried that she may lose contact with
her parent in India. Yasmeen recently arrived in India
along with her family for medical treatment of her husband.
On Monday, while returning to Pakistan with her husband,
her hope of meeting parents in India was fading. Many
other passengers at the railway station shared Yasmeen's
sentiment. She wanted the governments of India and Pakistan
to remember that there were strong bonds between persons
on both sides of the border. All wanted peace to prevail
in the region. The tension arose between India and Pakistan
after the alleged Pakistani sponsored terrorist attack
on Mumbai last month that had taken about 200 innocent
lives. After the terror attack on the Indian Parliament
in 2001, the government of India suspended all the cross-country
transportation including Samjhauta Express with Pakistan.
"My parents live in India and husband in Pakistan. Where
should I go, I don't want to leave any one of them...
I am going to Pakistan with my husband, as he was recently
operated. He needs me over there, said Yasmeen. She said
she knew girls who were married in Pakistan or India,
and all of them are having the same fear. Mohammad Qureshi,
another passenger, said that it is true that there is
a sense of fear prevailing amongst the passengers. That
is the reason that people avoid travelling in either country.
After entering into Indian Territory, he was feeling relaxed.
He believed and hoped that the governments of India and
Pakistan could defuse the tension. Akhar Ali, another
passenger from Karachi, who has arrived in India through
Samjhauta Express felt that people of India and Pakistan
don't want war. The Samjhauta Express commonly called
the Friendship Express, is a bi-weekly train - Tuesdays
and Fridays - that runs between Delhi and Attari in India
and Wagah and Lahore in Pakistan. The train was started
on July 22, 1976 following the Shimla Agreement and ran
between Amritsar and Lahore, a distance of about 42 km.
Following disturbances in Punjab in the late eighties,
due to security reasons Indian Railways decided to terminate
the service at Attari, where customs and immigration clearances
take place. Until the reopening of the Thar Express, this
was the only rail connection between the two countries.
Again, the lone train service between the two neighbours,
discontinued on January 1, 2002 in the wake of terrorist
attack on Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001. But
it was resumed in December, 2003.
-from Ravinder Singh Robin
-Dec
30, 2008
