WAGAH, Pakistan, May 28, 2003 - The crash of serious boots, angry looks, violent snorts and a final military greeting -- the goose-stepping of Pakistani and Indian soldiers creates a daily spectacle at the Wagah border post, where thousands meet each evening to watch the flag-lowering spectacle. "They show their irritation and their purpose, but it always stays formal," an officer of Pakistan's Rangers border guards said of the ceremony performed in a absolutely coordinated daily ritual for almost 56 years. A long white line, borne of the 1947 partition of Britain's Indian empire, defines the border between the antagonistic neighbors and two heavy gates, about two meters (yards) apart, lie across either side. On the Indian side, some 2,000 audience take their seats behind the border post after being let in through a path running alongside the border for 50 meters (yards) under the rounded moustaches of the Pakistani Rangers. Opposite, around 1,000 Pakistanis take their seats on also side of the Baab-e-Azadi (Gate of Freedom). The gate was built in August 2001 by Pakistani powers that be in homage to the thousands of Muslims killed during the mass migration to their new land in 1947. Cries of "Pakistan Zindabad" (Long live Pakistan) interchange with shouts of "Jai Hind" (Long live India). The Indians play war music, the Pakistanis play religious music. The Indians sing and dance. Pakistanis stay in their seats, men on one side and women on the other. But some are energetic in their own way: Mehrdin, 75, a vegetable vendor in Lahore, comes every day dressed in the national colour green, sporting a long white beard and transport a large Pakistani flag under the noses of tenderly booing Indian audience. A long guttural cry signals the end of the jollity: Pakistani Rangers in charcoal shalwar kameez (a traditional unit of long smock over trousers), without weapons, starts the ceremony. It is repeated identically on the Indian side. Pounding the ground with long strides, a Ranger goose-steps hurriedly towards the gate for a brusque exchange of mimicked threats with his Indian colleague. A second joins them, then a third in a bizarre rumba punctuated by glowering glares and warrior moustaches. The gates open. Two officers approach each other and after briefly coming face-to-face shake hands. Both soldiers can then start to lower the Pakistani and Indian flags fixed high on poles planted at the foot of the gates. Silence falls. Only the clacking of boots and the snorts of the soldiers can be heard. Carefully folded, the flags are passed away by the goose-stepping soldiers. Both officers return to the white border line. A final handshake. Not a single glance exchanged. The gates are slammed shut and on both sides, a trumpet announces the end of the spectacle. "I came because it's good to mark our difference. It's good for Pakistan to show it is strong," said Tariq, a youth from Lahore who came with his friends to watch the performance for the first time. Intimidated, the group of youths only relaxed when asked whether they had any desire to cross the border. "Right now, if we could!" Tariq and his friends replied in chorus.
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