Mumbai: Several city NGOs came together yesterday at SNDT College, Churchgate, to form a new group called Citizens for Peace. The event comprised of poetry recitation, music and readings. The speakers included celebrities and social workers like Shabana Azmi, Javed Akhtar, Nandita Das, Amin Sayani, Anita Deshmukh, Atul Tiwari and Seema Sehgal.

While Akhtar and Azmi recited Akhtar's poems, Deshmukh recited a poem in Marathi and Amin Sayani read verses penned by Rabindranath Tagore.

A peace declaration, which will be submitted to PM Manmohan Singh, Home Minister Shivraj Patil and all the chief ministers, was signed.