Hindustantimes.com
Quake softens borders between India, Pakistan
Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, October 19, 2005
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's dramatic offer to open the Line of Control (LoC) to quake relief from India has raised fresh hopes of creating a soft border between the two Kashmirs, something that India has been long advocating.
"We should welcome Musharraf's proposal to allow Kashmiris to cross the LoC and meet each other. It has vindicated India's advocacy of the need for a soft border between the two countries," G Parthasarathy, former ambassador to Pakistan, said.
"But there is a lot of practical details to be worked out. Musharraf must spell out where he wants relief, whether he wants it in Neelum Valley or Uri or in the Kargil-Gilgit area," he added.
Kuldip Nayar, veteran journalist and a crusader for India-Pakistan peace, sees the proposal to allow people to cross the LoC as a positive sign of reconciliation and good neighbourly behaviour.
"Let there be a soft border, at least for the Kashmiris. Let the whole process start," said Nayar, a strong proponent of a borderless South Asia.
The two countries on Tuesday also said they would facilitate dialup telephone conversations among Kashmiris on both sides of the LoC.
The radical import of these moves can't be missed: even though it has taken an apocalyptic earthquake to make this possible, the two countries would be moving towards softening the hitherto inviolable border across the military ceasefire line that has split Kashmir between India and Pakistan ever since they went to war over its sovereignty in 1948.
Kashmir has been at the heart of the dispute between India and Pakistan ever since their independence from the British in 1947 and the two countries have fought three military conflicts over it and nearly went to war again in 2002.
Since then, an unexpected peace offer from then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has taken the two countries on the road to peace and reconciliation.
"We will allow any amount of people coming across the LoC," Musharraf said at a press conference in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistani Kashmir and the epicentre of the Oct 8 temblor that measured 7.6 on the Richter scale and took over 40,000 lives, most of them in Pakistani occupied Kashmir.
"If India agrees, we would like to work out the formalities," Musharraf added. The offer, Musharraf clarified, was open only to civilian Kashmiris and not to Indian troops.
India welcomed the proposal and saw it as a vindication of its advocacy of a soft border between the two countries.
"We have always said the LoC should not be a barrier in this tragedy," Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran told a TV news channel. "India welcomes this proposal and would like free movement of people across the LoC," he added.
Said external affairs ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna: "India is willing to facilitate such movements but we await word from Pakistan about the practical details of implementing this intention."
India has been sending relief material to quake-hit Pakistan since Oct 10 when an IAF aircraft flew to Rawalpindi with 25 tonnes of medicines, tents and blankets. Subsequently, India has sent more consignments of emergency relief by train and road.
Some experts, however, have chosen to see Musharraf's proposal as opportunistic diplomacy aimed at pleasing the international community, which was worried about Pakistan not being very open to the idea of accepting Indian aid.
Says K Subrahmanyam, eminent strategic expert: "PoK is badly damaged. People are destitute. Musharraf wants to open the LoC to settle some of these people in Jammu and Kashmir."
"He is prepared to sacrifice Pakistani lives rather than allow them to be saved by an Indian soldier," he added.
"It's purely propaganda. He is doing all this to please the international community as he was seen as not accepting the Indian offer of assistance," Subrahmanyam told IANS.
He was alluding to Islamabad's request for providing Indian military helicopters without pilots and crews for conducting relief work across the LoC, a request that New Delhi turned down.
Parthasarathy also sees a strong streak of politics in Musharraf's offer.
"Basically, Musharraf has been under tremendous public pressure. We should also bear in mind that this offer was made on the day a minister was shot dead in cold blood in Jammu and Kashmir. The message is clear: Lashker-e-Taiba (the Pakistan based banned terror group) is making its presence felt," Parthsarathy warned.
"Musharaff is being criticised for his halting approach to the Indian offer of help. He is making this offer to counter this perception," opines Nayar.