Caravan of Indo-Pak peace rolls on

Braving militants' threats, Kashmiris bridge the divide.

An epoch-making bus service that will link Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) after over five decades was flagged off in Srinagar on Thursday by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, marking a milestone in India-Pakistan relations.

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Amid a gathering drizzle, a smiling Manmohan Singh waved a giant blue flag as the white bus with 21 passengers - some of them wiping tears of emotion - rolled out of the Sher-e-Kashmir stadium on its way to Muzaffarabad, 172 km away in PoK.

"Brother and sister will walk in hand in hand, something that many never dreamt of," Manmohan Singh said in a brief address before the inauguration, addressing some 2,000 people armed with Indian tricolours gathered at the stadium.

In a show of unity in the face of Wednesday's terror attack, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, state ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti and opposition National Conference leader Omar Abdullah witnessed the emotional and historic moment.

Barely 30 minutes later, a Pakistani bus originating from Muzaffarabad rolled out after a similar but tension-free ceremony in that city. The two buses will meet at a newly painted white road bridge - called Aman Setu (bridge of peace) - along the Line of Control (LoC), but will not cross the border. The passengers will disembark and board each other's buses after passing through immigration controls.

The inauguration in Srinagar went off smoothly, providing immense relief to the thousands of police and paramilitary personnel, who had almost taken over the Sher-e-Kashmir stadium to prevent any repeat of Wednesday's desperate terrorist strike on a tourist complex in Srinagar, where the bus passengers were housed.

The crowds, gathered at the heavily fortified stadium, waved enthusiastically as 21 of the originally intended 29 passengers took their seats and bid their final farewells. Eight had apparently dropped out because of terrorist threats.

"It is a very great moment for Kashmir," one in the crowd told the agency.

The Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus will link Jammu and Kashmir and PoK, separated during the 1947 partition of India, for the first time in 58 years.

It also marks a historic event in the India-Pakistan ties that have been marked by decades of hostility over Kashmir issue sparking wars, bloodshed and, since 1989, full-blown terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.

On Wednesday evening, a dramatic attack blamed on separatist terrorists on the tourist complex housing the bus passengers in Srinagar sparked panic, for a brief while putting question marks on the much-hyped peace bus.

The terrorists, believed to be two in number, were killed before they engaged security personnel in gun battles that lasted for almost 40 long minutes. In the process, much of the tourist complex was gutted in a blazing fire.

But 25 of the 29 passengers, who were in the complex, were quickly driven to a luxury hotel on the banks of the Dal Lake. Two of the buses chosen for the run were parked elsewhere and were not damaged.

But persisting dangers to the bus service were revealed when a bomb went off on Thursday in the northern town of Sopore, about eight kilometers from a highway the bus will take from Srinagar to Kaman, the last post in Jammu and Kashmir. A second explosive was detected and defused at Pattan, closer to the highway.

At Thursday's function in Srinagar, security personnel stood guarding the VIPs with their Israeli-made Uzi guns drawn out, below the dias. Guards were also there on the raised platform, just behind the Prime Minister, Sonia Gandhi and MM Sayeed.

Also present were External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh and Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar.

Before the inauguration, the Prime Minister warmly greeted all the passengers. All of them are Kashmiris, eager to see their loved ones living on the other side of LoC.

Earlier, gun-toting security personnel were deployed all along the nine-kilometre route from the Srinagar airport to the Sher-e-Kashmir stadium. However, Srinagar's streets were largely deserted.

Wednesday's terror attack was widely condemned. Pakistan denounced it. The US and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan also condemned the attack.