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India opens footbridge on LoC for quake hit

     Srinagar: People from both sides of line of control (LoC) of India and Pakistan reunited in grief Thursday after the two sides relaxed border restrictions as a humanitarian gesture. A temporary wooden footbridge has been built over a stream that divides the disputed region, enabling Kashmiris to check on surviving relatives on the other side after the devastating October 8 tremor. The crossing, however, was mostly one-way traffic, with 24 Indian Kashmiris returning home from the Pakistani side. The returning Kashmiris were all elderly, and some had to be helped down the steps cut into the gorge to the footbridge, while porters carried baggage on their heads. Eighty-three people from Indian Kashmir have been cleared to make the trip to Pakistani territory, but it was not clear on Thursday why they had not yet come across.

     None of the 120 people who live in Pakistan occupied Kashmir and applied to go the other way have yet had their names cleared by the Indian authorities. Shakil Ahmed, Relief Commissioner Pakistan, overseeing the crossing from the Pakistani side, was at a loss to explain why no one was coming across from the Indian side. "Some of the passengers' contacts have been lost in the quake, so we could not get to them. But the others whom we could get to we are returning these 24 people. Once the process for others is complete, we will be able to send them," he said. Mohammad Rafiq, living in the Indian side of the LoC, was visiting his family on the Pakistani side when the tremor hit, collapsing the permanent bridge that had spanned the stream and had carried a fortnightly bus service between the two sides since April. Rafiq, happy about returning to his home after almost a month long stay on the other side, said he was worried about his family here. "I am feeling very happy that God saved me. My family, also, has been saved. There is a lot of devastation on the other side," said Rafiq. Until Thursday, only relief supplies but no people were allowed over the footbridge linking Chakothi and Uri on the India side, leaving people of both sides aching for news of loved ones. Mohammed Kareem, another resident, said: "There is lot of devastation on the other side. We resided in a tent and the place where we had gone was completely devastated." The South Asian neighbours agreed last month to open five crossings on the LoC to exchange relief goods, but there have been delays in letting people across. Pakistan's military says people would be allowed to cross the other four border points later this month. The United Nations wants to see the LoC opened to its own aid trucks, saying it could save thousands of lives in remote mountain communities on the Pakistani side, but the two sides have yet to agree to this. The fortnightly bus service, between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad was opened when a peace process begun between India and Pakistan almost two years ago, but was suspended after the quake. Roads along the route, on both sides of the border, are still being cleared of landslides in many places.