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print version16 January, 2013
PETITION TO END TENSIONS AT LOC
To,
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari,
Dear Sirs,
We, the people of Jammu and Kashmir on both sides of the Line of Control, have been observing with great concern the escalation of tensions at the LoC that have been building up gradually since June 2012 and have suddenly taken an ugly turn since the first week of January, 2013.
We express grave concern at the loss of lives of the soldiers and any casualties to civilians on both the sides. At the same time, we are also concerned about the safety and security of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, particularly the people living at the borders, who are directly hit by sporadic incidents of shelling and firing.
These repeated violations of the ceasefire that has been in place as part of an agreement between India and Pakistan since 2003 have been adversely affecting the lives of the people at the borders. Besides, these also have the potential dangers of reversing the gains of this biggest confidence building measure that has enabled and facilitated interactions, howsoever symbolic, between the two sides of the divided state, provided security and a conducive atmosphere for much needed development for the people living at the borders. Besides, these tensions threaten the very framework of peace for which 10 year long ceasefire at the LoC has been a great bulwark, even though the pace of peace process has been so far tardy and does not fully engages with the people of this state.
We fear that if these tensions at the borders are allowed to prolong, they will compromise the goodwill that has been built and reverse the peace dividends. We also fear that they will cause massive sufferings to the people of not just the border areas, but eventually of the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir, on both sides. Besides, they will provide a greater space to extremist, hawkish and fanatic elements as well as empower the war mongers on both sides. They also have the potential of ushering the whole region into a new cold war destroying hopes of long term peace and economic stability and hamper SAARC-wide integration.
We deplore the war rhetoric and attempts by political or religious groups for symbolism of Kashmir to justify war mongering and hatred.
At the same time, we call for an immediate end to the hostilities on the Line of Control. We call upon the political leadership in New Delhi and Islamabad to impress upon their respective militaries to immediately desist from this continuum of shelling and firing incidents. We also call upon them to initiate action to begin immediate dialogue for a more long term end to these ongoing tensions, to restore the sanctity of the ceasefire that has been in place since 2003 by replacing strategic insecurities of the two militaries with mutual trust and co-operation.
1. Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal
2. Murtaza Shibli
3. Abdul Majid Zargar
4. Tajamul Hussain
5. Nusrat Andrabi
6. Suraiya Kamal
7. Arif Kamal
8. Tariq Masud
9. Ershad Mahmud
10. Najma Khan
11. Salman Anees Soz
12. Arjimand Hussain
13. Sameer Bhat
14. Akshay Azad
15. Asmat Ashai
16. Shafat N. Ahmad
17. Rekha Chowdhary
18. Badri Raina
19. Rahmat Kamal
20. Ellora Puri
21. Ved Bhasin
22. Nyla Ali Khan
23. Hameedah Nayeem
24. Shaheen Akhtar
25. Prabodh Jamwal
26. Gulam Jeelani
27. Gazalla Amin
28. Ishaq Kullar
29. Danish Khan
30. Anamika Mujoo Girotte
31. Motilal Raina
32. Dr Waleed Rasool
33. Altaf Hussain
34. Mushtaq ul Haq Ahmad Sikander
35. Dr Naseema Jogezai
36. Manmeet Bali Nag
37. Bashir Ahmad Dar
38. Gowhar Geelani
39. Jamshed Naqvi
40. Pyare Shivpuri
41. Shujaat Bukhari
42. Dr Javid Iqbal
43. Narjees Nawab
44. Javed Naqi
45. Shuchismita
46. Shefali Manhas
47. Pawan Bali
48. Riffat Swati
49. I.D Khajuria
50. Jehangir Ali
51. Aman Ullah Khan
52. Naqash Ali
53. Suraiya Hussain
54. Ghazal Haqqani
55. Jamil Maqsood
56. Dr M.A Siraj
57. Shivani Karki
58. Mantasha Binti Rashid
59. Jamil Maqsood
60. Qazi Mohammad Irshad Abbassi
61. Peer Moin Shah
62. Sham Prasad Kesar
63. Qurrat-ul-Ain
64. Boya Khan
65. Mehreen Kasana
66. Malvika Sharma
67. Adnan Ahmad Chaudhri
68. Syeda Qudsia Batool
69. Aadil Hussain
70. Manzoor Nowshari
71. Farooq jan
72. Sadaf Munshi
73. Erfan Majid
74. Javaid Trali
75. Imran Ali Waggan
76. Ajaz Khan
77. Abdul Majid Butt
78. Anjum Naqash
79. Shaukat Majeed
80. Zahid Qayoom Jan
81. Naeem Akhtar
82. Jennifer Khan
83. Amina Baltistani Ansari
84. Ejazullah Baig Kanjudi, Hunza
85. Warisha Farasat
86. Raju Moza
87. Anoj Gupta
88. Raoof Mir
89. Pervaiz Ahmed
90. Akhtar Bhat
91. Ashu Goel
92. Nadeem Qadri
93. Azad Ahmad Wani
94. Akhtar Bhat
95. Xoya Abbasi
96. Riyaz Anznoo
97. Mani Manbir
98. Mohammad Imran
99. Nazir Ahmad Malla
100. Sidrah Fatma Ahmed
101. Zaid al Baset
102. Usman Siddiqui
103. Hadi Hussain
104. Prabhu Razdan
105. Aparna Kapoor
106. Nazia Khaki
107. Tahir Manhas
108. Beenish Raza
109. Falak Ali
110. Dr Mohan K. Muju
111. Bismah Malik
112. Vinay Saraf
113. Habeel Iqbal
114. Shakeel Ahmad
115. Vikram Sahi
116. Waseem Bhat
117. Ghulam Muhammad
118. Kulbhushan
Several people from India and Pakistan have also supported our endeavour and endorsed our people for peace:
1. Sushobha Barve
2. Aditi bhaduri
3. Praful bidwai
4. Mahtab Alam
5. Beena Sarwar
6. Samreen Shahbaz
7. Dheeraj Pandey
8. Janmeet
9. Feroze Mithiborwala
10. Binu Mathew
11. Shivam Vij
12. Bharat Rai
13. Praveen Arimbrathodiyil
14. Ravinder Kaur
15. Sandeep Pandey
16. Shankar Ray
17. (Father) Claude Mostowik msc, President, Pax Christi Australia
18. Saba farooqui
19. Swati srivastava
20. Subhash Gatade
21. Susan Marie, NY USA
22. Mukul Dube
23. K.S.Parthasarathym
24. Katheeja Talha
25. Hasan Abdullah
26. Ammu Joseph
27. Farook Ahmed
28. Dr Khursheed Ahmed, Canada
29. Brijdeep
30. Prayag Mehta
31. Jyoti Thyagarajan
32. N Jayaram
33. Majo babu
34. Navsharan
35. Harsh Kapoor
36. Jatin Desai
37. Swathi Sukumar
38. Dhirendra Sharma
39. Zafarullah Khan
40. Iqbal Singh
41. Ram Pyari Kaur Rano
42. Davinder Singh
43. Sarita Kaur Rano
44. Dakshmeet Singh
45. Harvinder Singh
46. Sambhav K Sharma
47. Manav Sharma
48. Amita Sharma
49. Sarabjeet kaur Kamboh
50. Perminder Kamboh
51. Param Sahej Kamboh
52. Sahib Singh Kamboh
53. Sukhdeep Singh
54. Harvinder Sethi
55. Jai Kishan Sethi
56. Himanshu Sethi
57. Chiranjeev Sethi
58. Lisa Pires
59. Dr. Akhil Katyal
60. Varun Gurazada
61. Geet Chainani
62. Som Bhatta
63. Radha Kumar
64. A Rehman
65. Samir Gupta
66. Preeti Karkera
67. Bharadwaj Sharma
68. KS Subramaniam
69. Ashim Jyoti Choudhury
70. Sarvesh Ahuja
71. Vidya Bhusan Rawat
72. Maya Valecha
