LAHORE - Around 40 students from Pakistan and India learnt about each other’s culture at a session organised by Aaghaz-e-Dosti in connection with the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development.
It was 15th classroom connect programme of Aaghaz-e-Dosti, which is working for peace between Pakistan and India. The session began with students from Amman Kids Club, Lahore, who gathered in Gulberg. Indian students gathered in Surat City. They sang songs of friendship for their peers across the border.
Convener of Aaghaz-e-Dosti Devika Mittal told The Nation that “we are conducting more such sessions in coming days and we are hopeful that future belongs to these young students who are advocating peace”.
Devika said to cross the border and meet someone in the neighbouring country has always been difficult when it comes to Pakistan and India, but young students of two countries are paving the way for a peaceful future and exploring similarities and differences through classroom connect programmes. It is pertinent to mention previous sessions of classroom interaction were conducted in Lahore by Raza Mehmood Khan who went missing last December. He used ICT (Information, communication, technology) as a tool of connection and video conferencing to enable interaction between students of both countries.
International rights bodies and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan criticised disappearance of Raza Khan. Several protests and sit-ins were staged in support the missing rights activist in Lahore.