Dr Khalil Chishty is back home – three cheers for candle-light peaceniks

A post by my Delhi-based journalist friend Shivam Vij in Kafila- but he modestly leaves out his own role in this – it was his idea to get President Zardari briefed about the Dr Chishty case before he left for Ajmer. Thanks to Farahnaz Ispahani for getting the information to President Zardari, following up via [...]

PUCL plea to Rajasthan Governor: Sign Dr Chishty’s mercy petition

There is an outpouring of gratitude in India for the role played by Pakistanis, led by Ansar Burney, in getting freed Indian sailors from Somali pirates. But from the Governor Rajasthan, on whose desk the mercy petition for Dr Khaleel Chishty sits waiting for his signature, there is deafening silence. Fed up of the constant wait [...]

Rajasthan Home Secretary, PUCL, join hands for Dr Chishty

Report compiled from information sent by Kavita Srivastava, General Secretary PUCL, to Dr Chishty’s family and those engaged in working for his release.

Aman ki Asha and a daughter’s appeal

In humanity’s name: Aman ki Asha has been campaigning for clemency towards cross-border prisoners – young boys who stray across by mistake or in search of ‘Bollywood’, fishermen who cross the maritime border, families who have committed minor transgressions, long-term prisoners incarcerated for years on either side, until their story is taken up by human rights activists and [...]

Dr Chishty incarceration: details from his daughter Amna Chishty

16th April 2011 Details of my father’s case: Before I go into his case a brief background of my father: He is almost 80 years old. He received his PhD from University of Edinburgh, Scotland in 1968 in Public Health Virology. He had an illustrious career as a professor and head of department of virology [...]

Dr Chishty’s imprisonment: his daughter Amna’s update

Received an email this morning from Amna Chishty in Canada, copied to various people working to secure the release of her father, the aged Pakistani professor Dr Khalil Chishty, a prisoner in India for over 19 years, currently in Ajmer Prison hospital (report in The Hindu April 15, editorial in The News on April 13). She expresses her family’s gratitude for the continued efforts to help Dr Chishty and bring his case to the forefront and stresses the following points that need to be highlighted in the media:

Appeal to Indian President for release of aged Pakistani prisoner

On April 4, 2011 Amna Chishty, daughter of retired Pakistani professor Dr Khaleel Chishty currently a prisoner in Ajmer prison hospital appealed to Aman ki Asha to secure her father’s release, inspired by the Indian Supreme Court’s appeal for the release of Indian prisoner Gopal Dass in Pakistan, whom the Pakistan government subsequently released. Since [...]

Neighbours in peace – or pieces?

‘Intellectuals’ on either side of the border keep finding justifications for continuing animosity: “India/Pakistan wants to destroy us”; “Stop appeasing India/Pakistan”; “There is no point in talking to them”. If we listen to this babble of voices whose sole aim seems to be to present their own country’s case as better than the other’s, we’ll never get anywhere. Let’s stop these blame games and try and understand the nature and complexities of each other’s problems.

Move on please, decisively

Those who critique the push for peace as an obsession of the ‘liberal elite’ and the ‘Punjabi lobby’ ignore sentiments at the grassroots level: while aware of the problems, people on both sides are keen to live as neighbours in peace, like Mumtaz, a young Pushtun mother distracted by a six-year old and a suckling toddler, whose husband is a daily-wage-earner. “I don’t understand everything they are saying, but I do understand that they want peace between India and Pakistan,” she replied. “We should live in peace with our neighbours. Maybe then our lot will improve. We all want that.”

PAKISTAN/INDIA: Citizens Push for Peace

The months following last year’s Mumbai terror attacks have seen a renewed sense of urgency among peace activists in Pakistan and India. Citizens are pushing their governments to resume the composite dialogue process between the two nuclear-rival nations.