Separated by six decades of bitter hostility, residents of the Indian- and Pakistani-controlled parts of Kashmir lined their heavily militarised frontier on Wednesday to wave and cheer as officials exchanged aid for victims of the massive quake that rocked the region last month.
Porters carried hundreds of sacks of rice, wheat, sugar, tents, blankets and mattresses from India into Pakistan, after officials briefly opened the frontier for the exchange of relief material. In turn, Pakistan sent dozens of tents and blankets for victims on the Indian side of Kashmir.
Also on Wednesday, India announced it will send a further 600 tonnes of aid to Pakistan by train.
The shipment of snow tents, sleeping bags, blankets and medical equipment, including X-ray machines, is expected to arrive in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Friday, a statement from the Indian foreign ministry said. It would be the third large-scale shipment of aid from India.
The Himalayan region has been divided between India and Pakistan by a heavily militarised ceasefire line, known as the Line of Control, since a 1948 war.
Hundreds of residents, some with binoculars, lined the frontier on either side, eagerly scanning the horizon for a glimpse of their relatives.
”I’m really happy. We can at least see our relatives. We are so near, and yet so far,” said Rubina Banu (25), a school teacher in a village near Tulwari, the last military point along the border on the Indian side.
Residents have been eagerly waiting for India and Pakistan to agree on the travel documents and logistics needed to allow civilian exchanges between both sides of the quake-ravaged province.
Rivals India and Pakistan have moved toward closer cooperation following the October 8 temblor that killed more than 87 000 people on both sides of the frontier, most of them in Pakistan.
The two countries agreed on October 30 to open five crossings and allow Kashmiris to cross over for reunions with relatives on either side.
Those plans were delayed in part because the two sides needed to scrutinise lists of candidates, and India fears separatist Muslim militants may be among those trying to cross from Pakistan.
More than a dozen militant groups have been fighting since 1989 for Kashmir’s independence or its merger with Pakistan in an insurgency that has left more than 66 000 people dead.
The first of the civilian crossings is likely to take place on November 24 from the border point at Sirikote-Hajipir, Colonel VK Batra, an army spokesperson, said on Wednesday.
Sirikote is about 115km north of Srinagar, the summer capital of India’s Jammu-Kashmir state.
For Farida Begum (60), a gray-haired grandmother searching for her brothers among the crowds gathered on the Pakistani side, it was a thrilling prospect.
”If they allow us to cross, it will be like doing the hajj pilgrimage,” Begum said. — Sapa-AP