Tuesday, September 19 2006 10:58 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Lahore: Speakers at the second Indo-Pak Visa-Free and Peaceful South Asia Convention have demanded that India should withdraw from the recently signed nuclear deal with US and de-militarise J&K.

Thirty-five peace activists from India and hundreds from various parts of Pakistan attended the two-day convention that was held in Lahore under the auspices of the Institute of Peace and Secular Studies and Action Aid-Pakistan. The activists stressed that there could be tangible progress in the region only when the two countries end arms race, set aside their differences and enhance people-to-people contact. The delegates said at no point in history had weaponry guaranteed security of a state or nation. Mutual trust and friendship were much more effective in preserving peace than weapons.

The speakers described the weapons of mass destruction, poverty, illiteracy, intolerance and extremism as the root causes of economic instability in South Asia, adding that the diversion of national resources towards offensive purposes in the guise of defence expenditure has kept the two countries backward.

Members of civil society organisations from India and Pakistan staged a hunger-strike inside the Lahore Press Club to protest against nuclear proliferation and the rigidity of the visa policies between the two countries.