At sunset each day, before the only road crossing between India and Pakistan closes for the night, a military spectacle takes place in which forces from both countries come face-to-face and goose-step to goose-step at the Wagah border for an elaborate flag-lowering ceremony.
On Sunday, as spectators there headed for home, a suicide bomber on the Pakistan side detonated a device that killed dozens and more than 100 injured.
In response, India has now put on hold the ceremony that has taken place for six decades since the creation of Pakistan, according to officials from India’s Border Security Force, a paramilitary force responsible for guarding the country’s land border.
For at least three days the border will close without fanfare, officials said.
The Wagah border is about 14 miles from Lahore. The ceremony, known as ‘Beating Retreat’, attracts thousands of Indians and Pakistanis as well as a few bemused-looking foreign tourists to the tiered seating on each side of the border and the place echoes to cheers “Long live India” and “Long live Pakistan” as each side tries to outdo each other.
The south Asian nuclear-armed neighbors have had frosty relations since the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, and have fought three wars over the Himalayan territory of Kashmir, which both sides claim. Sunday’s suicide attack comes amid increased tensions between India and Pakistan after a resurgence of cross-border shooting at the disputed frontier in the Kashmir region.
Despite India and Pakistan’s rocky past and fractious present, the Wagah border ceremony is full of good-natured nationalistic pomp. If you want to get a sense of the atmosphere, think changing of the guard crossed with a baseball game.
The ritual begins with the sound of bugles blown together by military guards on both sides followed by a parade – a well-coordinated, energetic military display of competitive high-kicking put together by members of India’s Border Security Force and the Rangers of Pakistan.
Representatives from each side take it in turns to shout at the top of their voices and for as long as they can into a microphone in what could be described as a yell-off.
The end is marked by the lowering of the flags as soldiers shake hands across the divide between the hostile neighbors, before the border gates are slammed shut.
via Wagah Border Flag Ceremony a Casualty of Pakistan Bomb Attack – India Real Time – WSJ.
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