Second bus route to open across divided Kashmir

PAKISTAN: A second bus service between the Indian and Pakistani zones of disputed Kashmir was due to roll Tuesday, 14 months after an initial launch was seen as a peace symbol between the rivals.

Pakistan and India agreed to start the Rawlakot to Poonch service to help reunite families living on either side of Kashmir's Line of Control (LoC), a de facto border that splits the mountainous region.

The service was originally intended to begin on Monday but Pakistani officials said the schedule had changed due to "technical problems" on the Indian side.

"The bus service starts on Tuesday. There is no change in the programme," Pakistani foreign office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told AFP.

The fortnightly service is the latest step in attempts to normalise ties between the nuclear-armed rivals, who have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947 two of them over Kashmir.

Officials in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, said some 55 passengers would first gather at Tetri Note border post before boarding a bus for the Indian side, due to depart at 1130 am (0630 GMT).

The bus would take the passengers from Rawlakot district in Pakistan less than one mile (1.6 kiometres) up to the LoC, senior administration official Naeem Hussain Jafri told AFP.

Passengers would then cross the LoC on foot to Chankanbagh terminal on the Indian side, from where they would board another bus bound for Poonch. Some 35 Indian passengers coming from Poonch district would make the same journey from the opposite direction, disembarking first at Chankanbagh and crossing the LoC on foot before being driven to Rawlakot, Jafri said.

The South Asian rivals launched the first inter-Kashmir bus service between Muzaffarabad and Srinagar on April 7, 2005 amid violent protests by Kashmiri militants and opposition by hardline separatist groups opposed to New Delhi's rule in Kashmir. Opening of land routes was seen as a step toward creating a so-called "soft border" to allow thousands of Kashmiri families to reunite for the first time since the territory was split. "This is a good omen for the divided Kashmiri families," said Sardar Sikandar Hayat, prime minister of Pakistani Kashmir.

"Kashmiri people believe in peace, but India should move forward with positive steps for the permanent solution of long standing issue in accordance with the aspirations of the Kashmiri people," he said.

Muzaffarabab, Tuesday,AFP