National

Crossing over into history

KAMAN POST (LOC), APRIL 7. Khwaja Begum, a passenger on the inaugural Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus, today became the first Pakistani to legally cross over into India through the Line of Control (LoC).

Simultaneously, eighty-year-old Sher Bibi was the first Indian to cross over legally to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in 58 years. The LoC had been in the news in the past as it was constantly breached by militants to infiltrate. Some people on both sides of the divide used to cross over during the heavy artillery duel between Indian and Pakistani forces.

An emotion-choked Khwaja, who crossed the LoC through the Kaman Bridge, rechristened ``Aman Setu (peace bridge)'', on a wheel chair to meet her estranged family, became part of the chequered India-Pakistan history as she stepped on Indian soil. ``I last saw my family members 58 years ago. I am anxious to see them.... I could not even come for the wedding of the children," she added.

The other 29 passengers, who crossed over into India at 1.45 p.m. through the Kaman Bridge, expressed similar sentiments. For Akram Shah and Shamim Kureshi, the experience of being on Indian soil was not any different than being home in Muzaffarabad.

Mr. Shah, a judge in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, said the decision by the two countries to allow people to move across the LoC was a harbinger of peace. ``This opportunity is a godsend and we hope it will move towards bringing peace in the region."

``It's a blessing. I never thought this day would come,'' said passenger Raja Naseer Khan, 60, a retired civil servant from Srinagar, as he met his niece Noreen Arif for the first time in PoK.

Arif, a lawmaker and adviser to the Prime Minister of the Pakistani side burst into tears and told him: ``I've always wanted to see you. My mother always talked about you.''

Two buses left from Srinagar and one coach departed from Muzaffarabad, all of them headed for the Line of Control. Thirty passengers from the Pakistani zone were first to walk across the 67-metre Kaman Bridge that straddled the frontier, where they were mobbed and garlanded by Indian dignitaries.

To the tune of bagpipes played by Indian soldiers, some kissed the ground and others burst into tears, before they boarded another bus bound for Srinagar.

Meeting my mother

``I think I have achieved the objective of my life. Kashmir is my mother and I am meeting my mother,'' passenger Zia Sardar, 37, a lawyer from the Pakistan zone said.

Just over two hours later 19 people from the Indian side crossed over. They were the first to arrive at their eventual destination, where the people of Muzaffarabad took to the rooftops to greet the bus.

— UNI, Agencies

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