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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