New Delhi: A day after winning the Nobel Peace Prize along with Malala Yousafzai, Kailash Satyarthi, India’s best known face against child labour, on Saturday said that he spoke to the Pakistani teenager and said her that they must work for peace between their countries. Malala appreciated this thought, Satyarthi added.
The joint award is more ironically poignant, coming as it does when India and Pakistan are engaged in an intense exchange of ordnance across the contested Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir and heavily-guarded International Border.
Malala Yousafzai had on Friday said she is really happy on sharing the Nobel Peace Prize with a person from India and both have decided to invite Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif for the award ceremony in Oslo.
Addressing a press conference late Friday afternoon in Birmingham after the Norwegian Nobel Committee earlier in the day named Malala and Satyarthi the joint winners of this year’s peace Nobel, the Pakistani campaigner for girls’ education said she and her co-recipient would together work for child rights and education.
Announcing the award, the Nobel committee praised the pair’s “struggle against the suppression of children and young people. Satyarthi has maintained the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and headed various forms of peaceful protests, “focusing on the grave exploitation of children for financial gain,” the committee said at the Nobel Institute.
The 60-year-old founded Bachpan Bachao Andolan, which campaigns for child rights and an end to human trafficking. The Nobel committee said it was important that a Muslim and a Hindu, a Pakistani and an Indian, had joined in what it called a common struggle for education and against extremism.
Bureau Report
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