NEW DELHI, Jan 30: Bereft of any enthusiasm from their governments for an overture to ease their bilateral relations, a prominent peace group of Indian and Pakistan citizens announced a three-month campaign on Thursday in both countries to give peace a chance.

Former Finance Minister Dr Mubashir Hasan, who was earlier this month denied Indian visa, was allowed to make a visit to New Delhi where he invited former prime ministers to join the initiative by Pakistan-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy.

“We are trying to get the former prime ministers of India to visit Pakistan to boost our peace efforts,” Dr Hasan told Dawn. He said the move had become necessary as both the governments appeared adamant not to give any quarter to the other side.

“In this situation the responsibility falls on the people of the two countries to keep hopes of peace alive,” he said.

Tapan Bose, a founding member of the group from India, said it had been planned to invite Pakistan’s former prime ministers and chief ministers to India to continue to mount pressure on both sides to resume their peace talks.

A statement said the forum was firmly of the view that rhetoric of war and confrontation between nuclear armed countries must be scaled down now that both countries had de-mobilised troops from the massively wasteful eyeball-to-eyeball situation.

It said people-to-people relations were the best gurantee and surest recipe for for peaceful co-existence between the two countries with immense prospects for reviving economic cooperation.

“We, therefore, demand the lifting of restrictions on travel between the two countries and for resumption of dialogue as the only democratic way to resolve all outstanding disputes between the two countries and for freeing the entire Subcontinent from the fear of nuclear war and regime of terror and counter terror.”