83 from India held-Kashmir to Cross LoC Today
Pakistan Times Kashmir Desk

ISLAMABAD: For the first time, nearly 83 Kashmiris from held Kashmir will cross the Line of Control [LoC] on foot from the Hajipir-Uri crossing today, Thursday, but nobody will be able to cross over from Azad Kashmir.

The arrangement to cross the LoC at five designated places and dates has come as a result of a proposal by President Pervez Musharraf, who said he always wanted to make LoC irrelevant and after the October-8 earthquake managed to do just that.

General Inter-Services Public Relations Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan said: "This crossing by Kashmiris on LoC at the five agreed points should have started from November-7 which was the agreed date after the conclusion of the Pakistan-India meeting at the Foreign Office. But then you cannot clap with one hand as it takes two to tango."

Sultan said though the crossing points were being opened with the last one having opened on Wednesday, the openings at LoC were merely symbolic as no Kashmiri could cross.

The reason that no Kashmiri from Azad Kashmir will be crossing LoC today is because Pakistan sent a list to India only on Monday. "We are not blaming India for this delay but this should take place soon. We cleared 83 names but I am not sure how many from these names will be crossing over on Thursday which will be D-day for these crossings," spokesperson at the Foreign Office said.

Maj-Gen Sultan said the media from both sides would be allowed to witness the crossing. Asked where the Kashmiris crossing LoC would go to, he said, they must have contacted their relatives on this side by phone and would be meeting them. "The idea was for them to seek each other out and meet in grief. Pakistan has suggested that these crossings at LoC should be on daily basis in the daylight," he added.

On the other hand, Pakistan said a joint press conference by National Conference President Omar Abdullah, People’s Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti and Hurriyat Conference chief Mirwaiz Umer Farooq is quite normal. In what appears to be a positive development in held Srinagar with arch political rivals meeting for what they said was in aid of peace in Jammu and Kashmir, the move comes with other developments in both parts of Kashmir after the October 8 earthquake. "It is normal for Kashmiris to meet each other and this is nothing extraordinary. Umer Farooq has even been meeting the Indian leadership," the spokesperson at the Foreign Office said.●