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Braving threats, Kashmiris bridge the divide
PM flagged off the bus as Kashmiris witnessed the event. Have Your Say
Braving death threats, emotional but joyous Kashmiris on Thursday crossed a historic land bridge in Kashmir to herald the launch of an epoch-making bus service between India and Pakistan.
A day after terrorists carried out a challenging attack in Srinagar in an attempt to derail the land link, a white luxurious bus pulled out of the Sher-e-Kashmir sports stadium with 21 men and women after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ceremonially flagged it off.
A short time later, another luxury bus, this one painted in merging green and yellow, started its journey from Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistani occupied Kashmir, becoming the first to reach the Line of Control (LoC). Srinagar is separated from Muzaffarabad by 172 km.
At the border, with prayers on their lips, the men and women crossed a freshly done up bridge, becoming the first Kashmiris in over five decades to legally set foot on each other's soil after taking a bus through winding mountain routes.
The passengers became visibly emotional as Indian and Pakistani officials greeted them with bouquets. An elderly woman from Pakistan in a wheel chair had moist eyes while the younger ones waved to television cameras wildly.
The passengers crossed the bridge after customs and immigration formalities and got into the buses of each other countries, for their onward journey to Srinagar and Muzaffarabad.
"It is a great day for Kashmir," said National Conference president Omar Abdullah, one of the VIPs who witnessed the bus launch in the company of the Prime Minister, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed.
The young Abdullah's comments reflected a widely held opinion on both sides of the border of Kashmir.
Despite a blanket of security thrown on the Kashmir, suspected terrorists carried out three attacks. A rifle grenade was fired at the bus on its journey but it missed the target. Two other explosions took place not far from the highway in Kashmir that the buses took.
Thursday's momentous event, which was unthinkable even when India and Pakistan gently began making peace two years ago, is a milestone in bilateral relations between the two countries. It marks a positive turn to the now faltering, now surging peace process.
Both in Srinagar and Muzaffarabad, hundreds of ordinary Kashmiris bade goodbye to the passengers. In Srinagar the crowds waved Indian flags and lustily cheered as the bus began to roll out of the heavily fortified stadium.
Manmohan Singh, who had to be protected from a steady drizzle when he launched the service, called it an important day in the lives of people both in India and Pakistan, particularly for Kashmiris.
"The bus has opened a new chapter in the relations between India and Pakistan," he said in a brief speech. "(It) will unite brother with sister, people who never dreamt of coming together will do so. This is a bus of hope."
Because of Wednesday's terrorist attack, only 21 of the originally intended 29 passengers took their seats in Srinagar. Eight apparently dropped out because of terrorist threats.
The Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus will link the two parts of Kashmir.
However, none of the high-profile launch was seen in the PoK.
Pakistan projects PoK as autonomous territory and hence outside its political purview - the reason given for neither President Pervez Musharraf nor Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz being associated with the ceremonies at Muzaffarabad.
