Thousands converge for I-Day celebrations at Attari border

At an hour when most people across India would have been sleeping, thousands of people converged at the Attari-Wagah joint check post between India and Pakistan on Saturday night to be part of the midnight celebrations for India's 64th Independence Day.

At an hour when most people across India would have been sleeping, thousands of people converged at the Attari-Wagah joint check post between India and Pakistan on Saturday night to be part of the midnight celebrations for India's 64th Independence Day.

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Singers and other performers entertained the crowds with patriotic and other songs late Saturday evening to mark the occasion.

India-Pakistan Dosti Manch peace activists led by veteran journalist Kuldeep Nayar and filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, along with a few other prominent people, later marched up to the zero line along the international border between both countries with peace candles.

The Border Security Force (BSF), which mans the 553-km long barbed wire fenced international border between India and Pakistan in Punjab, had beefed up security around the joint check post for the event.

The cultural function was held at Attari village, about 300 metres from the border gates.

Mahesh Bhatt, Kuldeep Nayar and other peaceniks have been lighting peace candles at the border on every Independence Day for the last few years.