Poonch-Rawalkot bus service to be started
by N. Bhadran Nair

    New Delhi: India and Pakistan today decided to start a third bus service between Poonch in Jammu and Rawalkot and open two crossing points across the Line of Control (LoC) for divided families from both the Kashmirs to meet. This was decided at the conclusion of the third round of Foreign Secretary level talks in New Delhi today.

   Briefing newsmen after two days of talks, Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran said both the sides "agreed to mandate the two expert groups to continue consultations on security concepts and nuclear doctrines to develop measures for confidence building in the nuclear and conventional fields aimed at avoidance of conflict." Saran said, he gave a proposal to his Pakistan counterpart Riaz Mohammad Khan to finalize agreements on "Reducing Risk of Nuclear Accidents or Unauthorised Use of Nuclear Weapons, prevention of accidents at sea in order to ensure safety of navigation by naval vessels and aircraft belonging to the two sides, no development of news posts and defence works along the LoC and monthly flag meetings between local commanders at the selected sectors."

   Saran said the Poonch-Rawalkot bus service would be operationalised by March-April this year, while the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus route, which was damaged during the October 2005 earthquake, would also be restored around the same time. On Kashmir-centric CBMs, self-governance in the state, proposed by Pakistan, the Foreign Secretary said, there were representative institutions in Jammu and Kashmir and once representative entities were set up in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, these institutions on both sides could work together on common issues. Saran said Pakistan had raised the issue of demilitarization of Jammu and Kashmir. He however, told Riaz Mohammad Khan that there had to be a significant improvement in the situation and India would like the LoC to be a border of peace and tranquility. "We have never accepted a link between terrorism and demilitarization," said Saran. Khan however, said demilitarization and self-determination were the pre-requisites for an amicable resolution of the Kashmir issue. While admitting that there was violence in the Kashmir region, he denied that Pakistan was responsible for it. The Pakistan Foreign Secretary said Indian foreign office spokesman's statement on Balochistan was tantamount to interference it its internal affairs and would impact the peace process.

    In a joint statement issued at the end of the meeting, the two Foreign Secretaries recalled their decision to provide " consular access to all civilian prisoners and fishermen and their early repatriation on humanitarian grounds and reopen their respective Consulates General in Mumbai and Karachi." Both sides also discussed the schedule of meetings, including technical level meeting under the Composite Dialogue framework. The Foreign Secretaries will meet thereafter to review the third round of talks. The officials also agreed to hold early meetings of the technical level groups of the Joint Commission on Agriculture, Health, Science and Technology, Information, Education, IT and Telecommunication, Environment and Tourism so that they can report the progress to the next meeting of the ministerial level Joint Commission. Khan also met Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and reiterated President Musharraf's invitation to him to visit Pakistan.

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