Daily Times

LAHORE: Aaghaz-e-Dosti, an Indo-Pak friendship initiative, has appealed to the governments of Pakistan and India to establish a mechanism to stop ceasefire violations at the Line of Control (LoC).

“We believe that our appeal for a complete ceasefire reflects desire of thousands of people who wish to have peace and tranquility in the region,” the organisation said in a statement on Saturday. “We believe that differences and disputes between the countries should not take violent turn and should be resolved mutually through dialogues and other ways of diplomacy without claiming lives of civilians as well as soldiers,” the statement said. “We are concerned over the forced migration of Kashmiri people on both sides of the divided Kashmiri state due to shelling and to avoid deaths and injuries,” the statement said. “In Pakistan, approximately 60% of population is under 30 years of age while 41% population is under 20 years of age in India, according to recent reports. The data shows that how efficiently both the countries need to revive their priorities towards mutual peace and focused development.” It added, “Both the countries have a large number of children and they have every right to breathe in an atmosphere where there is no violence and no hatred.” “We believe that the governments and policymakers on both the sides have potential to take positive steps like they did in the past,” the statement said. “We observe that the coordination and desire for peace on both the sides was a key that has brought ceasefire agreement in 2003,” the statement pointed out. “We appeal to both the sides to find out ways to resolve their conflicts and take concrete steps to stop violation. In the current scenario, both the governments have opportunity to take steps for peace that would be remembered by millions of people and would create history.”

Published in Daily Times, July 23^rd , 2017.