LOC travel resumes and trade restarts

Travel across the Line of Control ( LoC) that divides Jammu and Kashmir between India and Pakistan resumed yesterday after being suspended due to tension following the January 8 killing of two Indian soldiers. Trade will resume today, an official said.

More than 150 people, stranded on either side, were cleared. While 85 people, who had come to meet relatives and overstayed due to the tension along the LoC, returned to their homes and 68 Indians crossed over to Jammu.

“As of now, there is no indication as to when fresh passengers will start coming from either of the two sides of the LoC,” an official said.

“We are clearing the backlog first,” he added.

The cross- LoC travel takes place every Monday. There were 109 people from across the LoC in Poonch and Rajouri districts when trouble broke out early this month.

This travel to unite divided families was one of the confidence building measures that began in 2005 from Salamabad to Chakoti in Kashmir valley and Chakan- da- Bagh to Rawalakot in the Poonch district of Jammu region.

Trade, which will resume today, usually takes place from Tuesday to Friday every week. Goods worth Rs20 million ( Dh1.36 million) are traded every day with about 25 trucks crossing over.

The trade was halted on January 10 when Indian officials said Pakistan did not open gates for the trucks at Chakan- da- Bagh.

India- Pakistan relations took a hit after New Delhi accused Pakistani troops of brutally killing two Indian soldiers along the LoC and beheading one of them.

Pakistan accused Indian troops of killing two Pakistani soldiers on two separate days. In retaliation to the beheading and the mutilation of the Indian soldier, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared that there could be “no business as usual” with Pakistan.