This story is from November 22, 2014

Folk songs for peace from Pak

A group of Hindu folksingers from Cholistan desert of Pakistan will come together with Indian artists to develop a stronger track in cultural relations between the two countries.
Folk songs for peace from Pak
AMRITSAR: A group of Hindu folksingers from Cholistan desert of Pakistan will come together with Indian artists to develop a stronger track in cultural relations between the two countries. The programme, a first of its kind, will be part of people’s effort to melt the ice between two neighbours following border skirmishes, snapping of bilateral ties and recent Wagah suicide bombing that has made Punjab’s border with Pakistan volatile.

Folksingers from Rohi, as the Cholistan desert is known in Pakistan, will reach India along with other sufi artistes and ghazal singers to perform during 11th Amritsar Lahore Peace Festival to be held here on November 29.
“This is more of a legacy than a festival for us,” Kirat Sandhu Cheema, director of Punarjyot, a centre for preservation and promotion of the heritage of Punjab, told TOI on Friday.
Other artistes from Pakistan who would be arriving to further the peace process and encourage peaceniks of both countries include Mian Meri Qawwal, Sain Zahoor and Wahadat Rameez, Kirat informed. She informed that Bheel, who hails from Cholistan, was not only fluent in Urdu but even Hindi, Sindhi and Punjabi and used “iktara” (single stringed musical instrument) while performing traditional folksongs of the desert.
Sahiljit Singh Sandhu, also director of Punarjyot, said their effort would be to connect common people, especially youth, to know more about the similarities in culture, language and traditions of both countries which would eventually help to shed misunderstandings to pave way for peace. Sahiljit said that in the forthcoming peace festivals both Indian and Pakistan artistes would be performing in fusion.
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