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Churches see hope in peace moves between India and Pakistan
2003-111-3
5/20/2003
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[Episcopal News Service]
Church leaders in India and Pakistan have expressed optimism about recent moves by the South Asian neighbors to ease decades-long tensions between the two countries, both of which are nuclear powers.
'This is a very positive sign. We hope and pray that our [Indian and Pakistan] governments are able to find lasting peace,' said Geevarghese Mar Coorilos, president of the National Council of Churches in India, which includes 29 Orthodox and Protestant churches. 'If there is more openness on both sides, we can live in peace.'
India announced in early May it was appointing an ambassador to restore to full strength its mission in Pakistan. Pakistan reciprocated and announced plans to release 300 Indian fishermen languishing in Pakistani prisons for straying into Pakistani waters. The two countries are also preparing to resume road, rail and air traffic communications that had previously been cut.
The strained relations between the two nations are rooted in a long-running dispute over the territory of Kashmir, in the Himalayan region. Both India and Pakistan lay claim to Kashmir, which has been divided between the two countries since 1949. Tensions reached a high point in December 2001 after an attack on the Indian parliament by Kashmiri Islamic militants fighting for cessation from India. Delhi said the militants were supported by Pakistan.
In the aftermath of that attack, India threatened to attack camps it said were in Pakistan, being used to train militants for a jihad (holy war) in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Hundreds of thousands of Indian and Pakistani soldiers had lined up on both sides of their 630-kilometres-long border last summer. The standoff raised fears of a war between the two nuclear powers.
'The people are craving for peace here [in Pakistan]. Even the ordinary people are very excited about the latest developments,' said Victor Azariah, general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Pakistan (NCCP), which includes four major Protestant churches in Pakistan. In a telephone interview from Lahore, Azariah said that special prayers were being said in the churches for 'peace in our region.'
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