KARACHI, Sept 18: Welcoming the joint statement issued after the meeting in Havana between President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, the Pakistan Peace Coalition on Monday called for removing all barriers restricting people-to-people contacts and allowing an unrestricted exchange of information between the two countries.

B. M. Kutty and Karamat Ali of the PPC said that the joint statement augurs well for the restoration of Pakistan-India peace process, which had suffered a near-fatal blow when India suspended it after the series of bomb blasts in Mumbai in July.

They noted that the two leaders agreeing on a joint anti-terror mechanism was of particular significance. “It has been the practice with both the governments to accuse each other of complicity within minutes of an incident of terrorism occurring in either country, and follow it up with a bitter exchange of charges,” they regretted.

The PPC leaders observed that terrorism was something that no government could combat on its own and this had been proved by the misadventures of President Bush in Afghanistan and Iraq. It needs support of the common people who have nothing to do with terrorism. But in the name of fighting terrorism, governments suppress people’s hope and aspirations, reducing the whole effort to an exercise in futility.

They pointed out that attention of the governments of Pakistan and India had constantly been drawn to the need for a joint assessment of ‘terrorism’ and how to fight it out jointly. They observed that there was a gap in the perceptions of governments and people on the issue of terrorism.

They maintained that a joint mechanism for combating terrorism also meant joint strategy to enlist the support of the people of the two countries to this effort.

The PPC leaders emphasised the need for jointly seeking ways and means to combat terrorism of all kinds — religious, political, ethnic, sectarian and other varieties — afflicting our societies.