'People-to-people contact pivotal to sub-continent, prevent any impediments to this'

New Delhi, March 29 If Germans and Israelis could shed the "heinous" baggage of the past, so can Ind and Pakistanis as "people-to-people" contact is vital for the sub-continent and no impediments should be allowed to come in the way, says Karachi-based Reema Abbasi, who describes herself as a journalist, idealist, wannabe yogi and reined in wanderer and whose English translation of path-breaking short stories by Urdu writer Wajida Tabassum, set in the Hyderabad Deccan of the 1950s, has just been published.

Abbasi, whose previous two books - on temples in Pakistan and on the Ajmer Sharif shrine - have been on promoting sub-continental oneness, also hopes that the results of the 2022 Assembly elections in India "will strengthen our ties because they underline the fact that our people have the same needs and problems".

"People-to-people contact is pivotal to our bloc. Our countries share heritage, culture, language, literature, struggles and socio-economic predicaments. Our people take to the streets for each other's pain, for example when Nirbhaya shook India, Pakistanis poured out into the streets with candles and when Pakistan lost a generation in the APS blast in Peshawar, Ind held their breath in sympathy and prayer," Abbasi told in an interview.

"More recently, we experienced deep pain as excruciating Covid footage flashed on our screens. Most hearts and places of worship held on to hope and prayers.

"We cannot allow any impediment to cast a dark shadow over collective empathy and attachment. It springs from our shared roots. Sadly, the exchange has come to a halt in recent times. Important steps such as profiling of people must be conducted to open our borders again," she added.

"Partition ripped through families. Generations stand divided by borders. If Germany and Israel can overcome heinous baggage, we are better than that," Abbasi asserted.

"Almost all my family lives in UP. I have known India since the age of two. We spent either summer or winter holidays there. Therefore, one is beyond familiar with its beauty and diversity. Anyone I met or made friends with in India always had a clear, realistic idea of Pakistan - a place firmly rooted in this region," Abbasi said, lamenting "a perceptible shift" in the age-old idea of the neighbourhood.

"A certain section of the electronic media can be held responsible for the damage as it forces people to see Pakistan as another Afghanistan or Saudi - a police state populated with burkhas and beards. Ironically, this disturbing distortion seems to flourish in the digital era

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