NEW DELHI, Aug 12: A group of lawmakers from Pakistan will, this year, join peace activists in India for an Independence Day candlelight vigil.

Mr Kuldip Nayyar, organiser of the event, said here on Tuesday that 15 Pakistani MPs would participate in the 10th ‘midnight peace festival’ at the Wagah border on Aug 14-15.

“We, candlelightwallahs, were condemned for the last 10 years but we were able to change the atmosphere. People who were ridiculing us have been proven wrong,” Mr Nayyar, president of the Hind-Pak Dosti Manch, said.

Pakistani lawmakers in the group include, among others, Aitzaz Ahsan, interior minister in Benazir Bhutto’s government; Pervez Malik of the Pakistan Muslim League and two Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal MPs.

Mr Nayyar said he would welcome the Pakistani delegation on Aug 14 afternoon. They are to stay in Amritsar.

In the evening, they will attend a musical programme followed by a dinner hosted by the dean of the Guru Nanak University. At midnight, candles will be lit on the Indo-Pakistan border.

On Aug 15, the delegation will visit the Golden Temple where the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and its members will be presented saropas (ceremonial swords). The delegation will also visit the Jallianwala Bagh memorial to freedom fighters.

“Both countries urgently need to relax visa rules. Till then, actual people-to-people contact cannot be established,” Mr Nayyar said.