INDIA: Nuclear rivals India and Pakistan yesterday agreed to a raft of confidence-building measures after a year of peace talks. The measures include a historic bus service between the capitals of the divided province of Kashmir, which has been at the heart of decades of bloodshed.
The inaugural bus service between Muzzafarabad on the Pakistani side and Srinagar on the Indian side will begin on April 7th, a joint statement declared in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, during a visit there by Indian Foreign Minister Mr Natwar Singh. Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Mr Khursheed Kasuri, said travel would be granted through an "entry permit system" - rather than passports, as India had insisted earlier - once the identities of travellers were verified by local officials on either side.
The announcement set off celebrations in the town of Uri in Indian-controlled Kashmir, which straddles the Line of Control (LoC) dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan. People rushed out of homes and shops, hugging and kissing each other, as the announcement became public.
"It is a historic decision. I want to be the first in the bus to visit the other part of Kashmir," said Mr Reyaz Ahmed (24). Like many Kashmiris he has close relatives living across the border whom he has never met.
"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 desired it, he added.
The neighbours, who have fought three wars since independence and an 11-week long border engagement in 1999 in which 1,200 soldiers died, came close to yet another military conflict three years ago.
Two of the three wars and the border engagement six years ago were over Kashmir, which is divided between the two, but claimed by both.
Mr Singh also said another bus service would be launched between the border cities of Amritsar and Lahore, the twin cities of Punjab province in India and Pakistan respectively.
In addition to the bus services, Mr Singh said India would start a rail link between Munabad, in India's western province of Rajasthan, and Khokhrapar, in Pakistan's southern province of Sindh, by October. This too would facilitate travel between divided families in the region.
Also on the agenda in the Islamabad talks was a €2.3 billion, 2,600 km gas pipeline from Iran to India via Pakistan that has been delayed for years. This was due mainly to New Delhi's security concerns over running the pipeline over 700 km through enemy territory.
Mr Singh said the two sides had agreed to look into the possibility of supporting the pipeline, providing Indian concerns about security and an assured gas supply from the pipeline were addressed.