WAGAH: Mohamed Iftakar waits with sweets and gifts at the Wagah border crossing, a lifeline for families violently separated during the founding of India and Pakistan, fearful of dangerous new divisions as hostilities flare once again.
Like many other Indians, he has extended family on both sides of the frontier and travels regularly between the two countries.
He worries authorities might close the main border crossing at Wagah in India’s northern Punjab state, leaving families like his in limbo, after New Delhi claimed it had conducted surgical strikes inside Pakistan.
“There are some ... jihadi groups in Pakistan that don’t want peace, but all of the other people are like us,” said Iftakar, who was travelling with his wife and two sons and carrying bags loaded with sweets and gifts.
People of both countries want good relations, says an Indian traveller
“They [Pakistanis] love us and they too want close relations between our two countries,” he said, before clearing customs and making the short walk to the border crossing.
Iftakar, whose wife Aarafa is from Pakistan, nervously remembers when India shut the border in 2001 after suspected militants staged a deadly attack on the parliament building in New Delhi.
The Wagah crossing itself is famous for its colourful “flag lowering” ceremony that draws huge cheering crowds on both sides of the border post each sunset to see the display of military preening and pageantry.
The ceremony was briefly closed to the public on the Indian side after the strikes in held Kashmir, which have led to a spike in tensions between the neighbours.
‘We are the same’
India says it has no desire for a further escalation in the situation, but has nevertheless ordered thousands of villagers to move away from the border in Punjab.
Last week’s strikes followed a deadly assault on one of India’s army bases at Uri in held Kashmir that Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based militants.
Islamabad has dismissed India’s claim about surgical strikes as an “illusion”, insisting any such incursions would be impossible.
At the customs hall, not far from Indian city of Amritsar and a short distance from Lahore, Ghulam Ali said he feared the regional tensions would delay a reunion with his wife.
“Our families have lived in the same region for generations,” forty-year-old Ali said.
Since marrying his Pakistani wife two years ago, he has been trying without success to secure a visa for her to live with him in India’s Rajasthan.
Instead, Ali, who works as a milk supplier, makes frequent visits across the border to see his wife and son.
“I hope that the governments, particularly our government, ensure that people like us, who have families across the border, don’t have problems travelling and meeting each other. We are the same people.”
The road leading to Wagah is normally choked with rickshaws and taxis. But it has been largely deserted in recent days, with many tea stalls and other roadside eateries shut.
Mohammad Shahid, whose mother and sister were heading to a relative’s wedding in Lahore, said he too hoped for a quick thawing of hostilities.
“I hope the governments sit and talk with each other,” he said. “We haven’t experienced such tension between the countries in a while.”
Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2016
