LAHORE, July 18: Tehmina Durrani, a renowned writer and a role model of resilience for women across the globe, has said she is prepared for a new “Jehad” by raising the flag of peace at Pak-Afghan Torkham border in next 15 days.

This symbolic gesture will begin a peaceful Jehad, wherein people of Pakistan will give Afghan children a hand of security, concern and love.

“My mission has begun with the publishing of my fourth inspirational book – Happy Things in Sorrow Times – that explains the issues faced by Afghan children, who were suffering during the last 34 years since the Soviet Union attacked Afghanistan in 1979,” she said.

“This book will soon help world leaders realise that there is nothing to win here (war in Afghanistan),” she hoped. Speaking at a press conference at a local hotel on Thursday, Ms Durrani introduced her latest bestseller “Happy Things in Sorrow Times” published by Ferozsons (Pvt) Ltd and said that she would be launching a movement to build an “International Citizens Pool” to enable people to take the matter of securing future of the world against the threat of terrorism in their hands and demand security and rehabilitation of the children of war from the world leaders. “I know it is a mammoth goal …. But I also know that it is achievable,” she asserted.

Urging media support for her peaceful “Jehad”, she said, “I am ready to ask the citizens of the world to unite with us and contribute one rupee, one riyal, one pound, one deutsche mark, one franc, one euro to build an International Citizen Pool to enable us to take this matter into our own hands”.

She requested the people of all nations to join the movement to restore the lives of the ‘invisible’ children of the Afghan war on a war footing. “When we stand up, the leadership will bow before us … we know that from experience that we have influenced political governments,” she emphasised.

Stating that 70 per cent Afghans are under the age of 25 now, Ms Durrani said “Happy Things in Sorrow Times” was an insight into the minds of those children living in war-torn Afghanistan.

Explaining the reason for highlighting the plight of war-torn Afghanistan’s women and children, Ms Durrani said she chose to write on the subject because Afghanistan greatly affected this region.

“We have to have peace with Afghanistan and create an understanding between the people of both countries. We can’t be at war at all times. War is also on within Pakistan – in Waziristan. I myself belong to this region (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and have more understanding about this region than Iran or Iraq,” she said.

Referring to the collateral damage in the war on terror, Ms Durrani said people of this world in general and of this region in particular must not allow the world leadership to walk away from the consequences of a war they thought was the answer to peace and leave behind an entire generation in mental trauma and deep-rooted anger. “The peace that the world leadership had tried to achieve through the war on terror has endangered the world forever,” she lamented.

Answering a question about seeking political support from federal or Punjab government, Ms Durrani said she needed political support from all political players in the country as well as all political governments across the globe. Stating that she was not on the platform of any political party, the writer and activist said, “I have kept myself separated from political affiliations and feel at ease for being a citizen of this world and belonging to the people of my country”.

Acknowledging media support since her struggle for freedom way back in 1991, Ms Durrani said she had again returned to media that had grown from a small boat to a big vessel. “With one unified voice through my pen as a weapon and media as an army can influence governments, political parties and ordinary citizens to bring in new people-welfare oriented policies.”

Ms Durrani also recalled her previous “Jehads” that helped made “accountability” of public servants a household demand; forcing Gen Musharraf government to issue identity papers to acid-burn victim Fakhra Younas, who pioneered the public focus on the heinous crime of acid terrorism; paying the price for breaking her silence in “My Feudal Lord”; highlighting Abdul Sattar Edhi’s services in “A Mirror to the Blind” and drawing attention to the misuse and distortion in “Blasphemy”. Earlier, a promo video for the introduction of the newly launched book was played. Ferozsons’ Zaheer Salam said the first edition of Happy Things in Sorrow Times had been sold in just two weeks since its launch on June 29.