Divided Kashmiri families wait in vain

He had heard authorities were going to open the border Monday to allow people to seek aid and check on long-lost relatives in wake of the Oct. 8 earthquake.

But his hopes and those of countless others like him were dashed by Kashmir's political reality. The highly anticipated event was postponed to next week, in large part due to Indian concerns that Muslim militants might head into Indian territory.

The delays angered several hundred Pakistanis waiting to cross, who began chanting for a free Kashmir. Pakistani police fired tear gas to break up the crowd.

The tensions came amid new warnings that the world has not donated enough aid to see quake survivors through the harsh Himalayan winter. About 3 million people are homeless across the region, most in Pakistan, where the estimated death toll rose from 73,000 to 86,000 on Tuesday. India has reported 1,350 deaths in its portion of Kashmir.

Kashmir was split between Hindu-dominated India and Muslim-dominated Pakistan after the bloody partition of the subcontinent following independence from Britain in 1947. Both countries claim the mainly Muslim territory in its entirety, a dispute that has caused two wars between the nuclear-armed neighbours and kept families separated for more than half a century.

Mir's mother, Khadija, hails from Pakistan but moved to India 22 years ago when she married Mir's father and made her home in the border town of Gulpur. She has not been back since, and her children have never met their uncles or cousins.

"All these years, my sisters and I, we've grown up listening to our mother tell stories of her life across the border in Pakistan," Mir said.

A few days ago Khadija, whose childhood home was destroyed by the quake, received a phone call from a brother back in Pakistan, Mohammed Rizwan, who said he would like to spend a few days with her family.