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Pak Rangers shell LoC relief point: 300 quake victims injured

     Poonch (Jammu and Kashmir): As many as 300 quake victims from Pakistani Kashmir were injured on Monday morning when Pakistan Rangers fired teargas shells on them to quell the huge rush for relief items at a camp on the Line of Control (LoC) that divides the Kashmir region. As per the agreement between India and Pakistan, the relief camp at Chakan da Bagh in Poonch opposite Titrinote in Pakistan was thrown open to the Pakistani Kashmiri quake victims at 10:30 a.m. As per the plan, the relief materials were to be distributed by the International Red Cross Society personnel who were to ferry them from the Indian relief camp to the Pakistani side. Informed sources said that as soon as the LoC was thrown open, there was a mad rush of people from the Pakistani side of the LoC. To quell the mob, the Pakistan Rangers opened fire, injuring as many as 250-300 people. Army sources said that now the situation was under control and relief was being distributed effectively. The incident took place on the Pakistani side of the LoC and the injured are receiving first aid there itself. As of now, the quake victims are not crossing the LoC. The relief materials are being distributed through the Pakistan Army. "We have made the camps ready and the infrastructure is in place for providing the relief to the quake affected from Pakistan- Occupied Kashmir (PoK), but since the lists of victims have not been exchanged, they are not crossing the LoC," said Colonel Thapar of the Indian Army's Media Directorate on phone. The camp, sources said, would remain open till evening time.

    Earlier, India and Pakistan opened their disputed border in Kashmir in a largely symbolic gesture to help survivors of the October 8 earthquake that killed more than 74,000 people. An orange Indian truck carrying relief goods drove up to the border in reverse, while a Pakistani truck reversed from its side. Men then began unloading sacks from the Indian truck into the Pakistani one. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf proposed last month opening five points on the heavily militarised Line of Control dividing Kashmir. India agreed to the proposal designed to allow divided families to meet and for aid to cross both ways and the two sides said the crossings would open on November 7. But on Saturday, India said only one of the five, in its Poonch district, which was lightly touched by the quake, would open on Monday. No one could cross the border today because the paperwork, which involves an exchange of lists of those wishing to travel and security checks, was not ready. The Line of Control has divided Kashmir since the neighbours fought their first war over the Muslim-majority Himalayan region shortly after independence from Britain in 1947. The two sides used to exchange regular artillery fire along the line until they agreed to a ceasefire in November 2003. That truce has underpinned a hesitant peace process between the nuclear-armed rivals, which has included talks on a range of disputes, including their central disagreement over Kashmir. Pakistan controls about a third of Kashmir, India about half and China the remaining. India says it will open a route into the Neelum valley from the village of Tithwal to Nauseri on the Pakistani side on Thursday but Pakistan says a bridge must be laid across the Neelum River before relief goods can come in. But with the roads in the area swept away by landslides, any aid sent in from the Indian side would still have to be moved by helicopter to communities outside the immediate area.

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