The 19 young Pakistani women, who are in Chandigarh to attend a peace conference, are not worried and are staying in India until October 3 as scheduled, organisers said on Friday, a day after the Indian Army’s “surgical strikes” across the Line of Control (LoC).
The girls spent the day in Shimla as originally scheduled, along with other delegates. They would be a part of the meet on Indo-Pak peace on Saturday here.
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“The girls from Pakistan are fine and are enjoying themselves in the company of delegates from 33 other nations,” Pramod Sharma, coordinator of Yuvsatta, that is hosting the Global Peace Fest, said.
As the news about the army’s strike spread, organisers started receiving calls from their families in Pakistan, asking them to return. Sharma, however, insisted that there is no panic either among the girls or their parents.
“The parents of the girls were calling up yesterday (Thursday) but they are also fine with this arrangement,” Sharma said. Organisers said they took the decision after checking with the women whether they wanted to stay back. The women, who came here on Wednesday for the five-day event, are students from different colleges and universities in Pakistan.
{{/usCountry}}“The parents of the girls were calling up yesterday (Thursday) but they are also fine with this arrangement,” Sharma said. Organisers said they took the decision after checking with the women whether they wanted to stay back. The women, who came here on Wednesday for the five-day event, are students from different colleges and universities in Pakistan.
{{/usCountry}}As originally scheduled, the women headed to Shimla on Friday morning on a day-long trip. They are not allowed to stay in any other place except Chandigarh as per their visa restrictions.
IB comes to girls’ rescue
With the girls finding it difficult to get SIM cards and accessing internet, officers from the Intelligence Bureau (IB) came to their rescue by providing them phones so that they could call up their kin in Pakistan.
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