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India, Pakistan agree bus link across Kashmir divide
A year of peace talks between India and Pakistan finally bore fruit on Wednesday when the nuclear rivals agreed to start a bus service across a ceasefire line dividing the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
The bus agreement was just one of several reached during Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh's meetings with Pakistan's leaders, but it was the one that mattered most to Kashmiris whose families were sundered by the partition of India in 1947.
"It is a dream come true. The bus will reunite thousands of families. Something great is happening to blood-soaked Kashmir after a pretty long time," said Deen Mohammad, a university student in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-held Kashmir.
"I am convinced that the cooperation between our two countries is not just a desirable objective, it is, in today's context, an imperative," Singh told a joint news conference held with Pakistan Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri.
India has taken a gradual approach to talks, while Pakistan wants to address the central dispute over Kashmir quickly.
"We had discussions on the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir and have impressed upon the Indian government for an early and final settlement of the issue in accordance with the aspirations of the people of Kashmir," Kasuri told the news conference.
Singh, wearing a sheepskin hat known as a Jinnah cap after the founder of Pakistan, also announced India would consider joining a mega pipeline project to have Iranian gas delivered via Pakistan, subject to assurances over security concerns.
India and Pakistan also agreed that talks would be initiated to reduce the risk of unauthorized use or an accident involving either sides' nuclear weapons.
They committed to finalising an accord on notifying each other before launching any missile tests.
A standing invitation to Indian Prime Minister Mamohan Singh to visit Pakistan was reiterated.
President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz both released statements welcoming the latest steps, but they also raised the nagging Baglihar dam issue.
Islamabad says the dam India is building will reduce the flow of water to Pakistan, and has asked for World Bank arbitration.
BUS TO MAKE HISTORY
The bus service will start on April 7 between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad, the capital of the Pakistan side.
"It is the biggest confidence building measure in Kashmir in decades," said Muzaffar Beigh, finance minister in Indian Kashmir. "The bus will open the hearts and minds of people living on both sides of Kashmir."
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw hailed the move and said: "This spirit of cooperation will, I hope, lead to many more measures that will benefit all in the region." Both sides claim Kashmir, which has been at the center of two of the wars fought between India and Pakistan since independence, and resolution of the bitter dispute still seems a long way off. India's Kashmir, the country's only Muslim-majority state, has been ravaged by a 15-year insurgency that New Delhi claims has been fueled and supported by Pakistan. Islamabad says the insurgency is an indigenous freedom struggle. New Delhi insists cross-border militancy must be stopped before engaging Pakistan fully over Kashmir's future. Singh also said other bus services would be re-started between Amritsar and Lahore, the twin cities of Punjab in India and Pakistan, respectively. Some routes for religious pilgrims would also eventually be started up. In addition, India has proposed that a rail line between two border towns in Pakistan's southern province of Sindh and the western Indian state of Rajastan be reopened in October. "Pakistan and India have absolutely no alternative ... They have to open up roads, they have to open up trade between themselves, and above everything else, they have to resolve the dispute," said Professor Abdul Gani Bhat, spokesman for the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, the main separatist alliance in Indian held Kashmir. |
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![Kashmiris light firecrackers to celebrate the start of a bus service across a ceasefire line, in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian administered Kashmir, February 16, 2005. Kashmiris on both sides of a ceasefire line were ecstatic after arch-rivals Pakistan and India finally agreed to start a bus service between the divided Himalayan territory. [Reuters]](xin_20020217134075024871.jpg)
![Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh,(L) walks with his Pakistani counterpart Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri,(R) in Islamabad, February 16, 2005. A year of peace talks between India and Pakistan finally bore fruit on Wednesday when the nuclear rivals agreed to start a bus service across a ceasefire line dividing the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir on April 7. [Reuters]](xin_22020217134435980962.jpg)
