Pakistan, India to open cross-LoC trade in Kashmir
21/10/2008 17:11
Pakistan and India are to open trade across the Line of Control in
disputed Kashmir today, a step aimed to ease recent strains between the two
rival countries.
The trucks, carrying stipulated commodity items, will cross
the cease-fire line for the first time since the two countries were divided 61
years ago and fought two of three wars on the Kashmir issue.
The trade route
will be functional today between Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-administered
Kashmir, and Srinagar, capital of India-administered Kashmir. The other
Rawalakot-Poonch route will be formally open later this month.
Reports said a
total of 21 items have been approved for import and export by the Joint Working
Group of the two countries. Fruits, kidney beans, honey, spices, walnuts and
almonds will be sent to Pakistan while rice, spices, rock salt, dry dates and
raisins will be imported to India.
Under an agreement, trucks will cross the
LoC twice a week and no customs duty would be imposed on the traded
goods.
Trucks from the two sides will cross the Aman Sethu bridge, or Peace
bridge, at the LoC, and be unloaded in the designated points.
Pakistan and
India decided to open the trans-Kashmir trade last month when Pakistani
President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held a
meeting in New York on the sidelines of the UN assembly.
This can be seen as
the first confidence-building measure since the new Pakistani government took
office seven months ago.
The two countries had launched bus services in
Kashmir in 2005, one year after they began the peace process.
Xinhua
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