Crucial moment

By Uma Das Jahangirnagar University
13 November 2005, 18:00 PM
We are helpless in the face of natural calamities. We can't go against nature. Tsunami, Hurricane Catrina, Wilma and the devastating earthquake in South Asia prove the point. India, Pakistan and Afghanistan were affected by the tremors. Forty thousand people have died in the Pakistani side of Kashmir and millions of people are now crying for aid.

India and Pakistan are increasing their missile capacities because of the Kashmir dispute. But this Kashmir (so called paradise) has become a place of death and destruction. Civilians are affected, not politicians or policy makers. In spite of all these, India has extended helping hand towards Pakistan. And this is an implementation of their “Track two level Diplomacy.” Natural calamity has brought India & Pakistan together. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh & Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf should realise that this is the high time to forge friendship. This initiative will reduce their feud and help to implement the peace process between the two hostile countries. If India and Pakistan can remove tension among themselves, South Asia will be a tension free zone; people will feel relieved.

So everything depends on India and Pakistan.