PRAGOTI

It has been a long haul. The people-to-people contact which we fostered like a gardener tending a sapling. My tryst with friendly relations between India and Pakistan goes back to September 13, 1947. That was the day when I crossed the border at Wagha after journeying from Sialkot, my hometown. I had seen murder and worse. Like millions of refugees, I too had been broken on the rack of history,writes Kuldip Nayar.

The US never considered India 'special' as we were made to believe,says M.K. Bhadrakumar

It is about time we re-examined the events of 1971 rather than erase them from our collective national memory.

Ammar Ali Jan of Labour Party Pakistan writes on the 'fall of Dhaka' in December 1971. This article was first carried in The News.

India’s demand for action against jihadist groups is entirely legitimate. But this must be done through international pressure upon Pakistan, says Pervez Hoodbhoy,who is the chairman of the physics department at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, is a distinguished scientist and a consistent voice for peace, democracy, and friendly relations between Pakistan and India.

A look at the art of omission that the modern media has mastered and how this completely changes the perspective, especially in a time of crisis.

Ammar Ali Jan of the Labour Party Pakistan raises his voice against the bigotry shown by the Pakistani media in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks. This article was first carried in The News.

Following a special report from The Dawn, which clearly established that the apprehended terrorist Mohammad Ajmal Amir Iman "Kasab" was indeed a resident of Pakistan, from Okara to be specific, the newspaper pens an editorial asking for its fellow citizens to work toward removing the scourge of terrorism and extremism from Pakistan. Pragoti re-publishes this edit and joins The Dawn in calling Pakistanis to work toward the effort, as much as Indians would have to work toward removing fundamentalism and right wing extremism from South Asia.

Current developments in the three-way equations involving the United States, Pakistan and India highlight that for the foreseeable future, they would need to factor in a “sleeping partner” — Afghanistan. India, in particular, needs to be cognisant of this strange coupling. Retired Indian Foreign Service official MK Bhadrakumar writes in The Hindu.

According to Pakistani officials, security forces over-ran a militant camp on the outskirts of Pakistani Kashmir's main city and seized the alleged mastermind of the attacks that shook Mumbai last month. Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi was among at least 12 people in Sunday's raid on the camp run by the banned group Laskhar-e-Taiba the group reportedly responsible for the attacks. It remains unclear if Lakhvi will be extradited to India. These ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan took place amidst local Indian elections with certain Indian media stations speculating on potential Indian military action against Pakistan. Although the deputy editor of The Hindu, Siddharth Varadarajan states "that there is no danger of war between India and Pakistan" he believes that "this crisis is pregnant with implications for Indo-Pak relations and the future of Pakistan." Real News Network interviews Siddharth Varadarajan on the developing situation between India and Pakistan in the aftermath of the Mumbai Terror Attacks.

India and Pakistan are in this together. Their fights against extremism will founder if fought alone. Mohsin Hamid writes in The Guardian.

One of the fallouts of the terror attacks in Mumbai has been an over-the-top reaction from the Indian media and jingoist appeals made in the same by some people connected to the establishment, certain "celebrities" - more fittingly, vacuous and obtuse people familiar to the public, and others. In direct correlation to this has been a reaction of abject denial by several voices in the Pakistani media, mirroring the jingoism in India.