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- July 12, 2006 >
Citizens Action & Ideas for
Peace in South Asia
We
condemn the heinous crime in Mumbai
A Statement by
Pakistani Peace Activists on the bomb blasts of July 11, 2006
The bomb blasts on local
trains and at railway stations in Mumbai, in which over 160 people have
been killed and many more are on the verge of dying, are perhaps the
most shocking of all such killings that have occurred in the
subcontinent of late. The reason is that this massacre has targeted
thousands of office and factory going men and women returning home to
be with their children and parents after a whole day's hard work. Those
who committed this great crime cannot even be called animals because
animals do not commit such crimes. Only human beings do.
It is time for the governments of Pakistan and India to re-assess their
priorities and be on a state of high alert. As long as they fail to
resolve their mostly man-made disputes and allow free and unfettered
people-to-people interaction between the two countries, all sorts of
extremists and terrorists would find it easy to indulge in and get away
with such insane barbarities. What has happened in Mumbai is indicative
of a widening of the dimensions of terrorist outreach. It calls for
united effort by not only the governments of Pakistan and India but the
people at large to identify and wipe out this cancer that is spreading
far and wide at a frightening pace.
Pakistan needs to take stern measures to put down all kinds of
demonstrations and displays of religious extremism in the country,
which directly or indirectly encourages terrorist activities in the
name of religion and undermines the peace process between Pakistan and
India. Similarly, India needs to curb the activities of religious
fanatics using the umbrella of India's pluralist democratic political
system, to spawn communal conflicts and derail the peace process. In
order to avert a possible collapse of the peace process as a result of
such tragic incidents, it is necessary that the two governments put
their heads together and take immediate steps to create a relaxed
political atmosphere in the subcontinent by removing all outlandish
restrictions on the movement of people between the two countries, thus
making it impossible for the terrorists to operate.
We would also ask all the sane, secular forces among the Muslims of the
world to rise above their petty sectarian positions and help launch an
international movement against terrorist activities in the name of
Islam.
We extend our heartfelt condolences to the members of the families who
have lost their near and dear ones in the bomb blasts and assure them
that we will strive, along with those in Pakistan and India and the
world who abhor religious extremism and terrorism, to fight this evil
till it is eliminated for good.
M.B.Naqvi, Senior Columnist & Founder Member PIPFPD
Dr. A.H.Nayyar, President, Pakistan Peace Coalition
Karamat Ali, Director PILER
Muhammad Tahseen, South Asia Partnership-Pakistan
Ms. Ayesha Yahqub, Takhleeq Foundation
B.M.Kutty, Secretary, Pakistan Peace Coalition
Dr. Aly Ercelan, Economist
Ms. Sheen Farrukh, Journalist
Ms. Sheema Kermani, Director, Tehreek-e-Niswan
Released by: B.M.Kutty
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