INDIA and Pakistan yesterday agreed to open a historic bus link between the capitals of divided Kashmir in the first tangible sign that more than a year of peace talks over the disputed region are beginning to bear fruit. | Good luck. You're going to need it. |
Kashmiris on both sides of the ceasefire line were delighted by the news. "It is a dream come true," said Deen Mohammad, a university student in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir. "The bus will reunite thousands of families. Something great is happening to blood-soaked Kashmir after a pretty long time."
The service, between Muzzafarabad on the Pakistani side and Srinagar on the Indian side, will start on 7 April, according to a joint statement read out during a visit by Natwar Singh, the Indian external affairs minister. Khursheed Kasuri, the Pakistani foreign minister, said travel would be granted through an "entry permit system", rather than a passport, once the identities of travellers are verified. Shyam Saran, India's foreign secretary, said it would be open to all Indians and Pakistanis, not just Kashmiris. "We have come a long way over the past year or so. I'm convinced that co-operation between our two countries is not just a desire and an objective, it is in today's context an imperative," Mr Singh said. "The people of both countries clearly desire it."
Mr Singh's visit is the first bilateral trip by an Indian foreign minister to Pakistan since 1989 and is part of a dialogue aimed at burying 57 years of hatred between the South Asian rivals. The deal has been in the works for months, but its consummation was still dramatic and the most tangible success of more than 14 months of peace talks that have at times seemed stalled. It is a welcome change from the rhetoric of the past few weeks, which has seen New Delhi and Islamabad squabble over a dam India is building on its side of Kashmir. More than 66,000 people have died since an Islamic insurgency began about 15 years ago, many at the hands of Indian troops. New Delhi accuses Pakistan of funding and training the rebels, but Islamabad insists it gives only moral and political support.
| Which amounts to the same thing. |