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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (46778)	8/1/2004 6:11:05 PM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Respond to of 50167

It is my firm conviction that peace between India and Pakistan can be consolidated only if we involve the common people in the peace building process. The borders of India and Pakistan were drawn in the blood of innocent Punjabis in 1947, but the old connections were not severed altogether. I interviewed Dr Khushi Mohammed Khan, a long time resident of Hamburg, Germany, on 16 and 17 July, 2003, and again on 13 July, 2004, about his visits to his hometown, Amloh, in the former princely state of Nabha, East Punjab. His is a story which confirms my belief that the social capital created over many generations by the Hindu, Muslim and Sikh communities of pre-partition Punjab was not dissipated entirely when that province was partitioned in 1947. The following is his fascinating story. “I was born on 12 October, 1930, in a small town, Amloh, Nabha State, East Punjab. My father was a pleader in the lower courts. All communities sought his services because he was known for his honesty and hard work. We had a good middle-class social standing, belonging to the Rajput biradari. Nabha was a border state on the eastern outskirts of Punjab and therefore removed from the main theatre of communal tension in western and central Punjab. Consequently we escaped communal rioting till the partition of Punjab was implemented. “Initially, not many Hindu and Sikh refugees from West Punjab headed towards Nabha State, but then the numbers began to grow. The Sikh Mahraja saw to it that peace was kept in the main towns, but in the rural areas raids began occurring on Muslim villages. Reports of massacres from all over Punjab were trickling in and the Muslim minority began reluctantly to prepare for the journey across the border. My father wanted to stay put but my mother pleaded with him not to risk his and his family’s lives. Finally on 18 September 1947 he decided to take us to Pakistan. “We left with a caravan which walked to the Pakistan border, taking the Ferozepore-Kasur route because the Amritsar-Lahore arena was at that time notorious as the killing field for refugees moving in either direction. Fortunately we arrived safely in Kasur. We spent the winter in a tent, and then moved on to Gujranwala. “My father found it impossible to set up practice in Gujranwala because all the proceedings were in English and he was not proficient in that language. We had been totally ruined. There was a ten-member family to support. Therefore he decided to become a petition writer. It meant sitting on the floor in the veranda of a tehsil court and writing applications for people in need of such service. He could never adjust to the rupture with his moorings in Amloh and died a broken man. “In 1949, I wrote a letter to Dr Girdhari Lal, the father of my playmate, Ashwani Kumar Sharma. Dr Lal, a Brahmin, was the only qualified medical practitioner in Amloh. He was kind and considerate and respected by everyone. A reply arrived and thus Ashwani and I began to correspond with each other. We remained in touch until 1958. “In the meantime, I received master’s degrees in economics and English literature and began a career as a lecturer which took me to different parts of West Punjab. In 1963, I went on a scholarship to Germany where I secured a PhD in development economics. I returned to Pakistan but failed to get a reasonable job as corruption and not merit had become the way to success. Back in Germany, I set up a family and began working as a researcher and university teacher. My professional engagements took me to many parts of the world, but my heart and soul continued to long for a visit to my place of birth, or as they say in Hindi, my janam bhoomi, Amloh. I revived my contact with Ashwani Kumar who insisted that I should visit them. “But at that time East Punjab was in turmoil. The Khalistan insurgency was in full swing and getting a tourist visa was well nigh impossible for an ex-Pakistani. However, as luck would have it a famous Indian academician, Prof AM Khusro, who had previously been the Indian ambassador to Germany, came to do some research at the German Overseas Institute where I worked. I told him my story and requested his help in getting the visa. That kindly man helped me and I could visit India. “I arrived back in Amloh in 1982 — after 35 years. The small town had changed somewhat but its people were as good-hearted as before. I was given a rousing reception: one that is given only to long lost sons-of-the-soil. Ashwani and other childhood friends took me through the main streets in a procession. Old men and women came asking about my family. A friendly competition ensued as to who should invite me for lunch and who for dinner. Old Hindu habits of Muslims being barred from the kitchen were no longer practised. I received real Punjabi hospitality wherever I went. A public meeting was arranged in which the speakers referred to the common Punjabi heritage emanating from the contributions of Baba Fariduddin Ganjshakar, Baba Guru Nanak and other great souls. “I requested that I should be permitted to sleep the first night in our old house where I was born. Its current owner was a Sikh refugee family from Lyallpur (now Faisalabad). They were only too glad to let me fulfil my desire. “I felt I owed something to my home town and its people. Consequently I established an educational foundation “Munshi Ji” (the name by which my father was usually known and addressed). I deposited a sizable amount of cash in the local bank. The procedure is that from the interest which accrues annually, deserving students of poor background are given scholarships. Both boys and girls benefit from the programme. “I have visited Amloh several times since. My stay is with my schoolmate, Ashwani Kumar, whose children treat me as their elder. With multiple visa entries in my passport granted by the Indian embassy in Germany, I now spend equal time in both Punjabs whenever I am in the subcontinent.” The author is an associate professor of Political Science at Stockholm University. He is the author of two books. His email address is Ishtiaq.Ahmed@statsvet.su.se dailytimes.com.pk

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (46778)	8/2/2004 9:17:05 AM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50167

Citing U.S. intelligence officials, The Washington Post reported in Monday editions that the information came from documents discovered after a raid on an al Qaeda cell in Pakistan eight days ago. The newspaper said one of the men arrested in the raid led authorities to the documents. On Friday, Pakistan announced the capture of a top al Qaeda operative, Tanzanian-born Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, wanted by the United States in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa, which killed 224 people. A computer and several disks were seized when Ghailani and 13 others were seized last weekend southeast of Islamabad.