It is dangerous for Indian Muslims to travel to Pakistan as tourists as I realised
FIROZ BAKHT AHMED ,SOCIAL COMMENTATOR AND GRAND NEPHEW OF ABUL KALAM
FIROZ BAKHT AHMED ,SOCIAL COMMENTATOR AND GRAND NEPHEW OF ABUL KALAM
My honeymoon with Lahore - my dream city, a place of fun and frolic and home to world’s best institutions like Aitchison College and Punjab University, eateries like Salt’n Pepper Village, Food Street and Zaiqa and water parks like, Sozo Water Park, Joy Land Park and Starlet shoes - has ended. During my second — and perhaps last visit there - from June 4 to June 13, I found ourselves: me, wife and our three children at the Sarwar Road Police Station, Lahore Cantonment.
Through these columns, I implore Muslims of India never to venture into Pakistan as tourists since there is no guarantee that they would return unless they are part of some government delegation. Pakistanis loathe Indian Muslims, terming them variously as enslaved and spies. My children who were enthusiastic about visiting Lahore — a city about which famed Urdu writer Kashmiri Lal Zakir had said, “Jinne Lahore nai vekhya/wo te jamiya hi naiee!” (He, who hasn’t seen Lahore/ He isn’t even born!) - are now absolutely Pakistan phobic.
On June 9, day five of our stay in Lahore at about 5 pm, the children wanted a joyride in Joy Land Park. While we were about to enter the park, we were threatened by ISI sleuths in civil dress who had been following us from Wagha. Without our knowledge, they diverted our three-wheeler towards the Sarwar Road Police Station in the Lahore Cantonment.
In the police station, we were told that we had entered a ‘prohibited’ area. My wife said we were tourists and there were no sign posts in any case. But our interrogators had sinister designs and began preparing papers to throw us behind bars.Even if a tourist unknowingly goes to the amusement park, he can land into the hands of ISI rangers. During the grilling, they kept repeating that Pakistani tourists get even worst treatment at the hands of Indian agencies. My consistent denial demeaned me in their eyes.
We were staying at the prestigious 125-year-old Aitchison College from where our passports, visas etc, were hauled in by the police. I was wondering what threat perception we posed, an enthusiastic bunch of tourists consisting of three school going children, me and wife?
The ISI spies had plotted impeccably to snare us - only to be later victimized as Sarabjits and Surjeets for whom neither Pakistan nor India are frankly much concerned. Our arrest documents were written and passports and other papers confiscated. Fortunately, College bursar Col Mehboob, a retired army man, spoke to the police assuring them of our bonafides. Even that was not enough and I had to call the editor of The Nation. It still took us five hours to get out of the dreadful and scandalous clutches of ISI officers after a written apology.
Pakistan, unfortunately, is run by ISI agents and its military. They are suspicious of all Indians. The `soft corner’ for Pakistan, after this treatment has absolutely vanished, particularly against the country’s intelligence apparatus. Bigwigs there are double faced and can do a ‘U’ turn at the drop of a hat, a reason why that country is on the verge of disaster.
At the police station, I could not help but wonder: the El Dorado that Quad-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah created as a dreamland of Muslims after thousands of sacrifices, is not even a semblance of the dream he had spun. Pakistan’s landscape is dominated by terrorism, corruption, inflation, honour killings and sectarianism - to name just a few burning problems.
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