Together for Peace
Sunday, March 3, 4.00 pm – 6.00 pm
Holland Park (corner of King George Blvd and 100th Avenue), Surrey
Stop nationalist hysteria and warmongering in India and Pakistan. Stand up for solidarity and friendship across borders.
India and Pakistan are once again in the grip of nationalist frenzy with dangerous acts and rhetoric of mutual hostility. The sad killing of a large number of Indian soldiers in Kashmir by a suicide bomber has generated trans-border air strikes leading to the risk of military escalation. Kashmiri students and traders in India have come under attack. Media and political interests are stoking nationalist hysteria. Voices of reason are drowned by thugs and trolls. This has spread into the diaspora.
The people of Pakistan and India are one people with a shared history of millennia. There is no border in our cultures and religions. The political border created with the enormous bloodshed of partition has sadly been solidified into a wall with continuing mutual hostility, militarism, nationalist historiography, and demonization. These destructive and anti-people forces must be challenged. We must affirm the common interest of our peoples for peace, friendship, and freedom of movement and exchange.
We call for an immediate end to the acts and rhetoric of hostility between India and Pakistan. We commend the Pakistan government’s return of the captured Indian pilot as the opening of a move toward peace. We call for the resumption of the initiative toward peace embodied in the Kartarpur Corridor. We call on the governments of India and Pakistan to commit themselves to resolving all problems through dialogue. We call on the peoples of Pakistan and India and our people in diaspora to overcome the hostilities rooted in the violence of national division. We have a common interest in peace, social justice, and sustainable development that benefits all our people.
Organized by Committee of Progressive Pakistani Canadians (CPPC) and South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD), www.sansad.org
Contact: Shahzad, 604-613-0375; Chin, 604-421-6752