Amritsar students visit Lahore, spread message of peace (Lead, Changing dateline)

LAHORE - Youngsters from India and Pakistan should be given opportunities to regularly interact with each other and display their talents in diverse fields to spread the message of peace.

This was the consensus of a group of students from Indias Millennium School in Amritsar visiting Lahore these days on the invitation of Sanjan Nagar Public Education Trust under the “Indo-Pakistan Peace Project for Education”.

Shankar Musafir, Programme Manager of Millennium School, said students on both sides of the border should be provided more chances “of meaningful interaction”.

“By sharing feelings and experiences, the youngsters could better understand each other and play a pivotal role to remove misunderstanding among the people of both the countries,” he said.

Seema Gupta, a teacher, said Indian students were very keen to come to Pakistan and meet their Pakistani friends.

“It is only through progressive communication and understanding each other at a human level that we can shun the negative propaganda and strengthen bilateral relationship,” she said.

Gurupdesh Singh, a Class 7 student, said he had made new friends in Pakistan on this trip. He added that he had seen Lahore only on Pakistani TV channels.

Saru Kundra, another student, said he was happy to be in Pakistan but was missing all his friends who did not get the Pakistani visa.

Samash, a Class 8 student, said she found love from the Pakistani students and actively participated in the activities of the day.

She said the visit had cleared many misconceptions regarding Pakistanis and she now understood that the negativity reported about them.

Earlier, scholar Arifa Syeda addressed the students and answered their questions.

She said a book was the best friend of any person and everybody should make an attempt to get knowledge about life, whether from the curriculum or beyond.

The Indian students, accompanied by their teachers, spent a busy weekend in Lahore. They participated in the poster-making activity on the topic of “friendship and peace”.

Kindergarten students of SNPET presented a puppet show while the visiting Indian students were later taken to watch Ajoka Theatre’s play “DARA” Saturday night before visiting the historical sites of Lahore Sunday.

The Aman ki Asha peace initiative has been jointly launched by the Jang Group of Pakistan and Times of India.

In this historical initiative, several delegations from diverse fields of life from either side are visiting each others country to take this peace initiative and human interaction at a larger scale.