PRAGOTI

The rejuvenation of jihadi forces in Pakistan and Afghanistan, its traditional backers in the Pakistani Army and the changed emphasis of the US vis-a-vis these forces, points to the failure of the Indian reliance on the "Am-Pak" strategy - using US leverage to take on terror directed at India, from within Pakistan.

 The past few days have been momentous in our neighbouring country of Pakistan. If the beginning of the month had us all despairing at the rising wave of Taliban inspired fundamentalism and terrorism which did not even spare the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team, the past couple of days have seen the vindication of popular struggles for democracy and rule of law. Most of us must have read the news reports of the "Long March" to Islamabad by the lawyers' movement, which was also joined recently by the Sharif brothers. 

It has been a long haul. The people-to-people contact which we fostered like a gardener tending a sapling. My tryst with friendly relations between India and Pakistan goes back to September 13, 1947. That was the day when I crossed the border at Wagha after journeying from Sialkot, my hometown. I had seen murder and worse. Like millions of refugees, I too had been broken on the rack of history,writes Kuldip Nayar.

It is about time we re-examined the events of 1971 rather than erase them from our collective national memory.

Ammar Ali Jan of Labour Party Pakistan writes on the 'fall of Dhaka' in December 1971. This article was first carried in The News.