Another Kashmir crossing opens, but not for people

Pakistani porter brings relief goods towards Indian-administered Kashmir during a relief exchange in Teetwal, 195km west of Srinagar yesterday. India and Pakistan opened a third crossing point on the disputed Kashmir border to facilitate the flow of aid to desperate earthquake survivors as fresh rain and snow hit the Himalayan region.. PHOTO: AFP

India and Pakistan have agreed to open five crossing points, as a humanitarian response to the Oct. 8 earthquake that killed over 75,000 people, mostly in Pakistani Kashmir.

But the governments have been criticised for their hesitance in opening the border to help deliver aid to communities cut off by landslides in the mountains and valleys of the remote region, and to allow villagers to visit kinfolk on the other side.

At Saturday's opening of a footbridge across the Neelum river between Chiliana in Pakistan and Tithwal in India, bags of relief goods containing tents, blankets, tools and warm clothing were given first by one side and then by the other.

The United Nations wants to see the ceasefire line opened to allow for movement of trucks it says could save thousands of lives in Pakistani Kashmir, but neither side has agreed to this.

Meantime, frustrated villagers peered across during Saturday's opening ceremony, looking for relatives on the other side of the valley flanked by forested hillside and snowy peaks.

"Today there will be no civilian movement, but later, after proper verification people from both sides can cross," Indian army Brigadier S. S. Jog said.

Pakistan says the delay to movement of people across the border is because India is not ready.

Indian officials have said people will begin crossing as early as Monday at some points on the Line of Control, as the border is known.

"It is ironic we can see each other but we cannot meet, look at that man in green dress, he is my cousin," said Abdul Qadir, on the Indian side, pointing over the river.

On the Pakistan side, Mohammad Sultan said he had walked for two days to reach Chiliana after speaking to his brother in Indian Kashmir and arranging to meet.

After scouring the crowd of villagers on the opposite bank of the Neelum with borrowed binoculars he still couldn't spot him.

"This Line of Control has separated brothers. It has divided families. But now it's becoming out of control for us to live like this," said the visibly angry Sultan, who had migrated to Pakistani-held Kashmir in the early 1990s and was now living in a camp for earthquake survivors in Muzaffarabad.

Pakistan and India have fought three wars since independence in 1947, two of them over the Muslim majority region of Kashmir.

The Indian army has been fighting an insurgency in Kashmir since 1989.