An Indian army officer (right) tells journalists not to cross the Line of Control (LoC) in Titrinote, Pakistan-administered Kashmir, about 180-km (111.8 miles) east of Islamabad, yesterday. Pakistan and India open one checkpoint of the Loc yesterday between Pakistan-administered Kashmir's Titrinote and Indian-administered Kashmiri's Poonch. The Pakistani proposal to open five points on the old rivals' disputed border in Kashmir appears more of a symbolic gesture of friendship, rather than something that will make a big difference for efforts to bring relief to survivors. Leftside is Pakistan. - REUTERS
INDIA-PAKISTAN LINE OF CONTROL (AP):
PAKISTANI POLICE fired tear gas and warning shots yesterday as a historic opening of the militarised frontier with India to funnel aid to earthquake victims sparked unrest among villagers demanding full independence for the stricken region of Kashmir.
An angry crowd of several hundred gathered on the Pakistan side of the Punch Valley, frustrated that civilians could not cross the frontier as earlier hoped. No one was reported hurt, but authorities arrested at least two men carrying young boys who made a vain dash for the border.
"We want a free Kashmir and we want to travel freely," said one of the protesters, Mohammed Saffir Abbasi, a 57-year-old retired Pakistani army soldier, as he wiped his eyes, streaming from tear gas that wafted across the fields, just 200 meters (yards) from the Line of Control, as the disputed border is also known.
The trouble broke out less than an hour after Indian and Pakistani officials shook hands across a length of white tape run across a ceremonial dirt square in no man's land. India then started handing over 25 truckloads of tents, blankets, food and medicine, while Pakistan sent one truck of relief goods to India.
TENS OF THOUSANDS KILLED
Most of the estimated 80,000 people killed in the October 8 earthquake lived in Pakistan's side of the disputed Himalayan region and its North West Frontier Province. About 1,350 also perished on the Indian side.
Fears remain for the more than 3 million left homeless. With the harsh Himalayan winter on its way in the coming weeks, the U.N. World Food Program warned Monday that 100,000 survivors in northern Pakistan had yet to receive any form of aid.
The shared disaster, however, has nudged South Asia's nuclear rivals into an agreement to ease tight restrictions that have prevented Kashmiris from crossing the tense border since soon after independence from Britain in 1947, when the predominantly Muslim province was split between Hindu-dominated India and the Islamic state of Pakistan.
Monday's opening was supposed to have been a much grander gesture: letting Kashmiris cross at five points to check on long-lost relatives and visit relief camps set up along the frontier. But India demurred, and allowed only one crossing to open. Journeys by civilians were put off, partly because India must be assured that no Muslim militants will head into Indian territory.
Braj Raj Sharma, a senior civilian official in India's Jammu-Kashmir state, said once-a-week crossings of civilians should be allowed by next Monday at two points, and despite the delays he heralded Monday's events as "historical."
"They say that adversity unites people. This is what is happening today," he told reporters.
Yet as relief goods were shifted from Indian to Pakistani trucks and driven down a bumpy track from the Line of Control to be transported to quake victims, frustrated villagers watching from a distance took up a chant of, "Free Kashmir! We want a free Kashmir!"
Passions rose among the crowd of about 500 people, and two fathers began running toward the border, each with a young boy in their arms. Police chased them down. Meanwhile, other officers fired tear gas shells and two bursts of automatic rifle fire into the air to disperse the crowd.
No villagers from India's side attended the aid exchange because of tight security there.
Pakistan played down the unrest.
"Some enthusiasts tried to cross. It's a military zone and we fired tear gas as we didn't want anyone to lose a limb," said Pakistani army Brig. Tahir Naqvi, the area commander, adding that while the area had been cleared of land mines, "you don't want to take chances."
Indian and Pakistani forces regularly exchanged fire across the Line of Control until agreeing to a cease-fire two years ago. In a peace process started last year, the neighbours started a bus service allowing some Kashmiris to cross, but the buses were shut down by the Oct. 8 quake.
Many Kashmiris say they want to cross now to see if relatives on the other side survived the 7.6-magnitude temblor. Others express frustration that despite the peace talks, little progress has been made in addressing their concerns over Kashmir's future.
In Titrinote, a village on the Pakistani side, residents said they want to be ruled neither by India nor Pakistan, and demanded that Kashmir be united _ an aspiration that neither country as ever entertained, possibly fearing it could fuel separatist movements in other volatile regions under their control.
Mohammed Saleem Kiana, 58, called Monday's exchange of aid "just a drama."
"If we can't go in there," he said pointing to the Indian side, "then it does not make much difference for us."
AP-NY-11-07-05 1031EST.
