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Kashmir : LoC crossing to be made easier

	November 14, 2005

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart, Shaukhat Aziz, have agreed to cut down the time taken to process applications for people to cross the Line of Control (LoC) at designated points in Kashmir to ten days. This was agreed upon at the first meeting between the two leaders after the Oct. 8 earthquake which shattered parts of Jammu and Kashmir and hit badly the people living in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The two leaders met on the sidelines of the SAARC summit which ended in Dhaka yesterday, Nov. 13. The agreement came a day after officials from both countries opened the third border meeting point along the line of control to ferry relief material across till all the quake-hit are rehabilitated.





No demilitarisation : PM



Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has made it clear to Pakistan that there could be no demilitarisation or redeployment of forces unless there is an end to cross-border terrorism. Dr. Manmohan Singh told Shaukat Aziz that India and Pakistan should not be deflected from taking forward the peace process by the terrorist attacks that continue to take place. Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran told mediapersons later that it was emphasised that eventual redeployment of forces should not be restricted to the line of control. He said the idea should be to take away the forces all around the international border in the search for a broader peace.



Meanwhile, the Army has said that despite the Oct. 8 earthquake, infiltration across the line of control has not stopped. The Chief of Staff at the 15 Corps HQ, Maj. Gen. V.K. Singh told media persons in Srinagar that militants were trying to infiltrate from across the border even in this hour of tragedy. But he said that it will not prevent the opening of relief camps along the line of control.





Third LoC cross point opened



Indian and Pakistani army officials on Saturday shook hands on a bridge marking the opening of the third point near Teetwal. “The exchange of relief material for the survivors will continue indefinitely. It will continue till all the people are rehabilitated,” Kupwara Deputy Commissioner Abdul Majid Banday told reporters.



But even while villagers from Teetwal and Nauseri on either side of the Kishenganga river cheered them on, the Army men declined to cross the causeway. The relief material was carried by porters across the bridge. The process began after Lt. Imran Grom of Pakistan who supervised the laying of the bridge, crossed it.



Col. Shaid of the 5 Punjab (Pakistan) and Commanding Officer of 12 Kumaon J. Nair shook hands, standing in the middle of the bridge amid loud cheers from those witnessing the opening of the relief point.



Earlier last week, two other points were opened for supply of relief material.



When the first point was opened along the line of control at Chakhan-da-Bagh on Nov. 7, Pakistani police lobbed tear gas shells to disperse a surging mob from Pakistan occupied Kashmir trying to cross the divide. Hundreds of locals converged on the remote post to meet their relatives after a separation of nearly half a century as Army officers of India and Pakistan exchanged white flags and hugged each other to formally declare the post open.



A crowed on the Pakistani side chanting slogans tried to cross into India side prompting police to fire tear gas shells.



Brig. A.K. Bakshi of the Indian Army said : “People had become too emotional and had to be controlled. But it should not be seen as something that cast a shadow on the historic event.” A senior police officer from Jammu said : “It was possible that there was some confusion on the other side. We saw many people gathering and it was getting difficult to control them. Pakistani police had to use tear gas and fire in the air.” The officials made it clear that only relief material would be exchanged at the posts and people would have to wait till they obtained the go ahead to cross.



The United Nations has hailed the opening of the Line of Control at designated points to help in augmenting relief supplies to the quake-hit in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Jan Vandemoortele, UN Resident Coordinator for Emergency Relief told journalists in Islamabad that “We were under the impression that the points would be only for pedestrian crossings. We are very pleased to note that truckloads of relief material are coming in through these points. It is of tremendous help in overcoming the logistical nightmare of reaching the cut off areas.”





Congress working out priorities



On the political front, the Congress is working out priorities now that the party has its first Chief Minister in Kashmir in 30 years. The top priority at present is providing relief to thousands of people rendered homeless by last month’s earthquake. The central leadership also wants the Ghulam Nabi Azad Government to improve the credibility and functioning of the state administration.



Chief Minister Azad has, meanwhile, said that the state would act as a facilitator in the ongoing peace process between India and Pakistan. Speaking to newspersons in Jammu, he said that his Government would urge the Centre to get the remaining groups, apart from the Hurriyat, to engage in talks. The Chief Minister said bringing back normalcy would be high priority for his Government.



In the allocation of portfolios, Azad has retained most of the crucial ministries including Home and General Administration, Information and Revenue. Otherwise, the People’s Democratic Party and the Congress are to continue with all the portfolios allotted in the previous Mufti Mohd. Sayeed Government.





No further movement on Centre-Hurriyat talks



There is no further movement in the talks between the Centre and the moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference. Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said in Srinagar that there has been no contact whatsoever since the Hurriyat’s meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sept. 5. The Mirwaiz said at our meeting with the Prime Minister, “We had asked for the release of various political detainees, improvement in the human rights record of the security forces and making them accountable, but unfortunately, nothing seems to have changed.” He added : “Had our meeting with the Prime Minister been followed by executing the assurances given to us, the atmosphere thus created would have helped in taking the peace process forward.”