KARACHI, Jan 18: A large number of people staged a peaceful demonstration at the Mazar-i-Quaid on Friday evening.

The demonstration ws organised by the Joint Action Committee for Peace (JACP).

The demonstrators were carrying placards and banners with various slogans, calling for peace, on them. They stood on the footpath outside the Quaid-i-Azam Academy on M. A. Jinnah Road.

The demonstrators called upon the governments of both India and Pakistan to reduce the tension on the borders, sit around the negotiating table and solve all their issues through dialogue.

A signature roll was also kept at the venue. The volunteers were asking the supporters of peace to sign on it. Later the demonstrators lighted candles and stood there for sometime, before dispersing peacefully.

The demonstrators included lawyers, doctors, teachers, journalists, IT specialists, retired army forces officers and political, labour, women and human rights activists.

The demonstrators had to stand on a narrow footpath and many a time they spilled over on the up-track of the M. A. Jinnah Road during the rush-hours when people return from the downtown offices and business centres. The authorities did not allow the demonstrators to stand on the wider footpath on the side the Mazar. The traffic on that down-track of the road is also comparatively less.

Some of the slogans written on the placards and banners were: “we want bread not bombs”, “we want education not war”, “no sabre rattling”, “we want freedom not war”, “ foreign forces quit kashmir”, “down with state and religious terrorism”, “India — Pakistan war means suicide”, “all we are saying give peace a chance”, “ Kashmiris want independence not war”, etc.

This was the third such demonstration to b held by concerned citizens to force the governments of Pakistan and India to scale down the tension at the border and live in peace and harmony, like good neighbours.

The first such demonstration was held at the Press Club, while the second one was held at the Expo Centre where the police manhandled peace activists and a couple of them were taken into temporary custody.

The DIG had promised action against ASP Asif Ejaz. But, as was expected, it turned out to be an eyewash and no action has been taken against the police official for his high-handedness.