New Delhi: A 10-member Indian peace and cultural delegation comprising writers and film makers would be going to Pakistan in July to work for peace and harmony in the subcontinent.

Led by Punjabi writer Ajeet Cour, the delegation comprising eminent personalities like Bhisham Sahni, Sunil Dutt, Gulzar, Lekh Tandon, Kuldip Nayar and Muckhkund Dubey would be travelling to Islamabad in July to interact and take the message of peace across to writers and peace activists on the other side of the border.

"In the light of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's latest peace initiative, there is a need to create afresh an environment of trust which only people from the cultural background can do," says Cour, President, Foundation of SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) Writers and Literature.

The delegation would interact with luminaries of the literary world in Pakistan like Ahmad Faraz, Najam Sayeed and Kishwar Nahid besides interacting with leading peace activist Mubashir Hussain.

The delegation would be embarking on a twin mission of fostering peace and also preparing ground for the seventh SAARC writers' conference, which will be held in Pakistan in November.

Recognised by the SAARC secretariat, the Conference, which has earlier been held in Maldives, New Delhi and Dhaka, would see the participation of 40 Indian writers writing in varied languages.

PTI