HVK Archives: No takers for I-Day greetings at Pak border
No takers for I-Day greetings at Pak border - The Economic Times
Wagah Border Post (Punjab)
()
16 August 1997
Title: No takers for I-Day greetings at Pak border
Author: Wagah Border Post (Punjab)
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: August 16, 1997
Thousands of Indian enthusiasts, who fathered at the country's main border
post with Pakistan during a special mid-night Independence bash, found no
takers for their greetings across the barbed wires.
Over 6,000 people defied security guards to join some 2,000 people with
security passes and marched up to the Wagah post, shortly before midnight
on August 14-15, in what was described as the largest ever congregation at
an Indian border position. But many participants went away with bitter
experiences.
Thousands of people clogged the moonlit road leading to Pakistan on the
night of August 14, when ordinary Indian and Pakistani citizens were
scheduled to meet at the border post for the first time since Pakistan was
carved out of India in 1947.
The meeting, which was aimed at melting away bitterness between the nations
that have fought three wars in the last 50 years, did not materialise when
the Pakistani citizens denied permission to gather at Wagah.
The hand-shaking between the citizens of the two countries was to be the
high point of the 'Indo-Pak Amity Vigil,' which was to also include the
holding of candle lights by the all the participants.
The huge crowd of Indian enthusiasts went out of control soon after they
reached the border in scores of cars, trucks, jeeps and other vehicles,
shocking the organisers, who had hoped for a presence of 2,500.
Hundreds of girls, children and old people scurried for cover as groups of
local bullies made passes at women and physically molested them in several
bouts of midnight revelry. Long after the incidents stopped, children and
young girls sat huddled at a pavement on the side of the road.
In one part of the huge crowd, a group of drunk rowdies ripped off the
clothes of a girl, pushed around her friend and tried to molest scores of
others, watched helplessly by security guards.
Several people were injured as furious jostling among the participants
resulted in a minor stampede. - IANS
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