The Hindu : Shunning the gun

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 23, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Shunning the gun

Sir, — Prime Minister Vajpayee's historic speech in Srinagar ( April 19 ), exhorting all to shun the gun is worth considering, especially by the Pakistan-sponsored militants in Jammu and Kashmir. The decades-old militancy in the State has achieved nothing except death and destruction. If Pakistan has not learnt a lesson, it is a reflection on its misanthropic attitude towards human problems. The men and materials dissipated in Kashmir, if utilised for the State's development, would have truly made it a "paradise on earth".

V.S. Thomas,
Chennai

Sir, — The Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba chief, Hafiz Saeed's justification of the killing of Hindus as part of the jehad against India is shocking (April 14). It cannot be dismissed as insane prattle by a fanatic. Rather, it is a reflection of a cruel society that has been propped up by the Pakistani rulers over the years. There appears to be an unspoken acceptance of this mindset by the Pakistani society because never has such an outrage been witnessed in that country. Whereas in India, any similar outburst is condemned by the press, the political class and the Government. We do have nasty replicas of Hafiz Saeed in a Praveen Togadia amid us but such elements do not find acceptance. The Saeeds are not only accepted but also patronised in Pakistan. The Lashkar chief's outburst flies in the face of Gen. Musharraf who maintains that his country has no hand in the jehad.

T.S. Rao,
Visakhapatnam, A.P.

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