Under a sweltering afternoon sun, the protocol finally melted. On the remains of narrow twisting streets at a two-millennia-old site at Taxila which once hosted Alexander the Great, BJP president LK Advani and his Pakistani security entourage broke formation to arrange themselves in photographs. As his family, guides and guards clustered into a series of frames, his daughter Pratibha promised her hosts that she would send them copies soon. Bhir Mound, just a few hundred metres from the Taxila Museum, is believed to be the most unexcavated site here. Advani was informed that in fact, just recently, a copper bust of Alexander was unearthed here and is still being readied for museum display. Appreciating the fact that the Pakistan government has remained committed to archaeological work begun here by the British in 1914, he wrote in the museum’s visitor’s book: ‘‘Taxila is a name which evokes memories of the heights our civilization had once attained.’’ Later, Advani pointed to the shared civilisational strength of India and Pakistan. Over the last day, shared history was cited as key co-efficient of India-Pakistan engagement. In course of his meeting with foreign minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri on Tuesday, Advani suggested that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh jointly commemorate the 150th anniversary of the First War of Independence. The proposal had first been mooted by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at the Islamabad SAARC summit in January 2004. Kasuri told Advani that India and Pakistan owed peace to both ‘‘our forefathers’’ and future generations. He talked of his family’s participation in the freedom movement. Advani said: ‘‘What unites the people of India and Pakistan is the common heritage of the freedom struggle.’’ He has also asked the High Commission to explore the possibility of visiting the site where Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were hanged in Lahore. Parliamentary notes On Tuesday, L.K. Advani called on the Chairman of the Senate and the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, Fazlur Rehman of the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA). He said he regarded it his responsibility to see that the peace process initiated by the NDA government was not impeded. He hoped that visits by Indian and Pakistani political leaders to each other’s countries would continue.
