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Teenaged Pak boy hopes peace will prevail

17-year-old Jawar Hussain, who lost both his arms in a tragic incident, says every right-thinking Pakistani strongly condemns any act of terrorism.

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CHANDIGARH: At a time when tension is escalating between India and Pakistan in the wake of last month's Mumbai terror attacks, a teenaged boy from across the border on Monday said he hopes peace between the two neighbouring nations will prevail and common people on both sides will be able to travel freely.
    
17-year-old Jawar Hussain, who lost both his arms in a tragic incident in May this year while assisting his father at his farm, says every right-thinking Pakistani strongly condemns any act of terrorism anywhere in the world.
    
"An ordinary Pakistani citizen does not support terrorism. Common people have got to do nothing with it. I sincerely hope that peace will prevail so that people like me are able to travel freely," Hussain who hails from Ukada, over 130 km from Lahore, said.
  
Hussain lost both his arms in a threshing machine accident on May 11 and tragically when he had lost his right arm he lost the other one while trying to save the first one. The incident had occurred barely a week before he was to appear for his matriculation examination.
    
The Pak boy alongwith his uncle Mohammed Iqbal are currently camping at Nevedac Prosthetic Centre, a charitable organisation at Zirakpur, 15 km from here, where the teenager is under treatment and would be fitted with electronic limbs.
    
"We travelled by Samjhauta express and reached Zirakpur on December 16. Not for a moment have I felt out of place here. The people in general and in particular everyone at the Prosthetic Centre has been so hospitable. I really hope this goodwill among the people of the two countries, thousands of whom still have relatives living on both sides, continues," he said.

Hussain's uncle Mohammed Iqbal is also overwhelmed about Indian hospitality.
    
"People here are so warm. We also hail from (Pak) Punjab and hardly can anyone differentiate between our state and this (Indian) Punjab," he said, adding "ordinary people never want the tensions to escalate".
    
Iqbal said that after Hussain's accident, they had tried to seek treatment back in Pakistan, but it was not satisfactory.
    
"His bleeding continued and artificial limbs available back home were also not of good quality," he pointed out.
     
He said they had met a Sikh official working at the Gurudwara in Nankana Sahib in Pakistan, who had told them about the Centre at Zirakpur, which specializes in manufacturing electronic arms.
    
"We wrote to the Director of the Centre and he sent us a letter on the basis of which we were granted a visa from November 4-February 3. Just when we were planning our trip the Mumbai terror incident happened. Though we were about to shelve our plan to travel, but after the Centre's Director assured us that everything was normal here we decided to come," said Iqbal.
    
Col (retd) K J Vohra, Director of the Prosthetic Centre said they would be providing the electronic arms worth Rs 22,000 to Hussain free of cost and their Centre would also take care of their boarding and lodging needs as the treatment time involves 15 days.
     
He said Hussain's case was complicated since he had also lost both his elbows in the accident.
    
"After we fit the electronic arms, he should be able to take care of his basic needs. It is his strong desire that he should be able to write again and we have assured him on this. If all goes well, he may also be able to operate a computer," said Vohra.

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