How Indians see Pakistanis

KARACHI: This is with reference to your editorial of February 6 titled “The wrong message”. I have met many Indians during my trips abroad and have found that most of them have been brainwashed into believing that all Pakistanis are terrorists. Invariably, after the first few minutes of friendly talk, when I tell them I’m from Karachi, they are shocked. They also believe that most Pakistanis are illiterate and too poor to be able to go for vacations to foreign lands.

Only if the Indian government allows Pakistanis to visit India without restriction will the mindset of the ordinary Indian change. But do our governments want Indians and Pakistanis to be friends?

Shakir Lakhani

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2014.