While the Pakistani President talks about peace with India on one hand, peace activists working on Indo-Pak peace are under threat. One activist – Asif Baladi – has been kidnapped by ISI.

While the peace process, vis-à-vis Indo-Pak relations, has picked up momentum over the past couple of years, it is still largely defined by elitism. For sustained, viable peace, it is imperative that the peace movement create completely decentralized processes.

There are enough reasons for establishing peace between India and Pakistan. But the building blocks for this process are constantly being questioned. Does Kashmir need to be solved? Are more confidence building measures necessary? What?

Perhaps the biggest reasons for the peace march were validated by people we met, people who stopped us, people who would not let us go, did not want us to sleep, who wanted to talk to us, ask us questions. Nodding at us when we explained why we were marching. Applauding us. Giving us water, food, Rooh Afza, sherbet. Sometimes asking whether they could come along.

The Peace March has now crossed into Punjab, and into the second part of the Indian leg. The enthusiasm of people along the route continues to inspire the marchers.

Below is a thought-provoking report by Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy of his impressions of India, while there on a month-long lecture tour, in connection with his UNESCO’s Kalinga Prize in 2003.

There seems to be much enthusiasm regarding Track II initiatives (or people to people’s contact) between India and Pakistan and the effect it has had. Indeed, in 2004, the volume of such contact was significantly higher than in the years past.

In the first part of this series, Yvette Rosser talks about political forces and the prejudices in Pakistani textbooks.

Abdul Hamid Khan, Chairman of Balawaristan National Front presents a peace proposal for J&K to the heads of India and Pakistan from Gilgit Baltistan

Indian and Pakistani fishermen, invariably straying into each others territorial waters are regularly arrested and imprisoned. While this issue has constantly been raised in so called confidence building talks between the two countries, it has yet to be resolved.