31 July 2003
INDIA
REVIVES OFFER TO OPEN LoC, BORDER IN KASHMIR
From
Our Delhi Bureau
NEW DELHI: In a major policy decision,
the Vajpayee Government has revived a proposal floated on the eve of
the Agra summit to open up India's borders with Pakistan in Jammu and
Kashmir and Rajasthan to improve people-to-people contacts that can
automatically reduce tension between the two countries.
The
announcement of the revival made on July 30 in Parliament has been,
however, entirely missed by the Media as it was buried in reply to an unstarred question
of Congress member Ghulam Nabi Azad
Asked to comment on J&K
Chief Minister Mufti Mohd Sayeed's suggestion of a "softer Line
of Control (LoC)" to enable families union of families living on
the two sides, Minister of State for Home I D Swami told the Rajya
Sabha that the government was willing to open additional check posts
along the international border and the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.
The
offer that Pakistan has to reciprocate involves opening up of
Muzaffarabad-Srinagar road and Sialkote-Jammu Road in Jammu and
Kashmir and a road link between Rajasthan and Sindh at
Munabo.
MOBILE PHONE: Yet another positive posture to the
Kashmiris came on Wednesday from the Defence Ministry which has
finally given a clearance for allowing the mobile phones in Jammu and
Kashmir. The Home Ministry had earlier okayed the cellular phone
service in the state from the security view point.
Asked if
the Government of India was supportive to the J&K Chief
Minister's suggestion for "softening" the LoC to help
meetings between the divided families, Swami said India still stood
by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's July 9, 2001 proposals for
easing travel restrictions between the two countries.
The Government
had then "indicated willingness to consider several proposals for easing
travel restrictions between the two countries including through additional
check posts in Rajasthan-Sindh border and at designated points along the
International Border and the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir," the Minister pointed
out
He went
on to point out that the Prime Minister has once again emphasized, in
his speech on May 2, 2003, the importance of people-to-people contact
to create an environment in which difficult issues between India and
Pakistan could be addressed. He said the resumption of Delhi-Lahore
bus service and the exchange of parliamentary delegations between the
two countries were steps towards this direction.
ROAD CLOSED
SINCE 1947: The 183-km Srinagar to Muzaffarabad road, close to the
hearts of Kashmiris, was the only main route for travellers to
Kashmir Valley from the rest of the world till 1947. It had remained
blocked after a bridge was blown up to hold back Indian forces at the
start of the 1947 war between India and Pakistan.
Various
International peacemakers are proposing the opening of the routes
between the two parts of Kashmir, to fit with the "soft border"
solution to resolve the Kashmir dispute. They believe this step would
make the region more autonomous from Islamabad and New Delhi.
Soon
after Vajpayee's proposal in 2001 that was made few days ahead of
President General Pervez Musharraf's visit for the Agra summit, then
PoK President Sultan Mahmood had mooted the idea of a
Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus. He believed that this could become the
powerful symbol of friendship.
A US based think-tank,
Multi-Track Diplomacy (IMTD) had recently pleaded for a second bus
trip between India and Pakistan via Srinagar and Muzaffarabad.
Ambassador John W. McDonald of the IMTD believed that this would be a
different and more exciting journey than the Lahore trip. He claimed
that the sustained communication among all Kashmiris is an effective
step toward establishing stable, peaceful relations.
The route
between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad already has a paved road in place
and would take less than three hours for travelling from the capital
of Jammu and Kashmir to the capital of the Pak-occupied
Kashmir.
After all if North Korea, the world's most Stalinist
and isolationist state can allow citizen exchanges with South Korea,
then surely India and Pakistan cannot object to such a peaceful
interchange of citizens, McDonald pleaded.
Ahead of Agra
summit, the hopes were kindled that both countries would discuss the
opening of the LoC. The expectations were too high in the Uri
Township, which was the first stop after crossing the Red Bridge (Lal
Pul) on this side of Kashmir. The real estate prices had sky-rocketed
along the road in July 2001.
For the last 56 years, this road
is used by only the members of the United Nations Military Observers
Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) who have been using it to move
across the LoC. The U.N. officials stop their vehicles near the Red
Bridge, alight and cross it on foot. The construction on this
historical road began in 1880 and was completed in 10 years. It was
thrown open to the public in 1892 when Maharaja Partap Singh, third
Dogra ruler, was driven across in a bullock cart to Domel.
Among
the many proposals that have been put forward over the years as
possible ways of settling the conflict between India and Pakistan
over Kashmir, the conversion of the Line of Control (LoC) into an
international border is widely seen as the "pragmatic
solution."
But while the idea has significant support in
India, it has fewer takers in Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir.
Pakistan fears that by offering to open check posts in Kashmir, India
might be laying a trap that could ultimately lead to the conversion
of the LoC into an international border and thereby dumping of the
Kashmir dispute.
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