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| Saturday, 19 February 2005 |
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After bus, train to Pakistan LAHORE, Friday - (The Hindu, AFP) Pakistan's green signal for the Khokhrapar-Munabao rail service between Sindh and Rajasthan has been facilitated by the decision to go ahead with the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service in Islamabad, Indian officials feel. A couple of months ago, Pakistan had asked for three years' time for converting the metre gauge track on its side to broad gauge. Now, it has been agreed that pending gauge conversion, Indian and Pakistani passengers could use the available track and then cross the International Border and get into the "other train." It was as if Pakistan was waiting for agreement on the trans-Line of Control (LoC) bus service before deciding to move ahead with the rail link, the Amritsar-Lahore bus service and taking concrete steps to re-open the Pakistani and Indian consulates in Mumbai and Karachi - agreed to by the two countries about eight months back. The Foreign Secretary, Shyam Saran, told Indian presspersons accompanying the External Affairs Minister, Natwar Singh, that the idea was to run "synchronised" bus services from Srinagar to Muzaffarabad and in the reverse direction to allow passengers to cross the LoC. He stressed that the Indian and Pakistani buses would not cross the LoC, but passengers would be able to get off and board buses headed towards Srinagar and Muzaffarabad. The passengers would, obviously, have to cross the LoC on foot. Both India and Pakistan recognise that the LoC bus is a creative compromise. If India has accommodated Pakistan on the non-use of passports and visas, Islamabad has softened its stand by permitting all Indians and Pakistanis (not just Kashmiris) to use the bus service. The External Affairs Minister, Natwar Singh, and his counterpart, Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, have good reason to be proud of this achievement. Indian officials said New Delhi took no chances with the text of the bus agreement, which had been hammered out through back channels previously. Mr. Singh showed it to the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, at his meeting yesterday, who then gave the final, formal nod. Meanwhile One of the first passengers on the Srinagar to Muzaffarabad bus when it restarts on April 7 will be a 47-year-old farmer who wants to search for his sister in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. "I was living for this day," Mohammed Sidiq said, referring to a decision Wednesday by arch-rivals India and Pakistan to restart a bus service through their zones of divided Kashmir after more than 50 years. "I want to take the first bus across to find my sister," Sidiq told AFP at Lalpul (Red Bridge), currently the last point vehicles can reach along the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad highway before the highly militarised Line of Control, the de facto border between India and Pakistan in Kashimr. "For the past 10 years I have not heard from her," he said of his 35-year-old sister Rehmat Bibi, who has been living in Pakistan-administered Kashmir since 1985. The 170 kilometer (105 mile) highway has been cut into the steep sides of avalanche-prone glacial valleys and follows the Jehlum river as it flows down to Muzaffarabad. The route is treacherous in places but men and machines are working flat out to ensure vulnerable stretches are made safe before the first bus ride on April 7. An army officer said demining would begin soon of the last two kilometer stretch on the Indian side of the Line of Control. The mood in settlements along the highway has been jubilant since news of the road's reopening spread, despite it being dismissed as a "non-issue" by the hardline separatists and rebel groups. Housewife Akbar Bibi, 47, can't wait to be reunited with her five brothers who are all living in Pakistani Kashmir. "I last saw them when they were kids. I want to see them now. They are all elder to me," Bibi said at Lalpul, 116 kilometers (72 miles) west of Srinagar. Bashir Abbasi, a shopkeeper, said people were coming to Lalpul from various villages to discuss the development. "We were very happy when the ceasefire was announced but our happiness over the starting of a bus service has no limits," he said. |
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