OUR media has condemned the Pulwama incident and also shown maturity while reporting the issue. However, in the Indian media, not a single news channel has shown the same tolerance. An immature media will always contribute to controversy and create chaos in the region.

Talk shows on Indian media these days are adding fuel to the fire. It has always been Indian nature to blame Pakistan and to a lesser extent China for all the ills that befalls India. The Indian leaders build their own narratives and then view the world through that prism.

If peace is to prevail between the two nuclear-powered nations, India needs to realise that it has to grant the Kashmiri people the right of self-determination and stop bullying its smaller neighbours.

This is a rather tall order given the fact that New Delhi acted irresponsibly recently against its larger neighbour, China, and was solely responsible for the Doklam stand-off. It was Beijing’s tolerance and patience that finally brought India to its senses.

Only mass media preaching sanity and an understanding the other’s viewpoint can be the harbinger of peace in the subcontinent.

Shoukat Abro
Islamabad

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SOON after the Pulwama attack the level of hatred across the border has gone up.

High commissioners from both sides were summoned to their respective capitals. India suspended trade with Pakistan and the bus service from Muzaffarabad to Srinagar. Moreover, India is now threatening to divert the flow of water.

The gravest of all the reactions was the killing of a Pakistani prisoner in an Indian jail. People of Kashmir returned home from all over India to save their lives. On the other hand, Pakistan assured India of its cooperation and condemned the attack. There was some criticism over social media but not of a significant magnitude.

Pakistan did not hinder the flow of imports from India and showed the willingness to probe into the matter if India provided the proof. What Prime Minister Imran Khan said in his speech about the retaliation in case of an Indian misadventure was a correct move, coming from the supreme leader of state. Despite taking peace initiatives whenever there is a crisis, Pakistan receives no positive response from India.

If one believes that hatred can be cashed in, then one must remember what Javed Naqvi says in his article — that Vajpayee could not win the elections despite Kargil skirmish, and Manmohan won the elections without raising a finger on Pakistan over the Mumbai attack.

Iqra Siddique
Rawalpindi

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2019