ANGER: Police scuffle with activists from All-India Youth Federation, the youth wing of the Communist Party of India, during a protest against the screening of obscene films in cinema halls in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad on Tuesday. (Reuters)

SRINAGAR: India and Pakistan have agreed to start bilateral trade between parts of Kashmir they separately administer by as early as next month, officials and news reports said yesterday.

As the announcement for initiation of the trade is expected to be made following the scheduled maiden meeting between the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh and Pakistan’s newly elected president, Asif Ali Zardari, in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session today, arrangements for the cross-border, Line of Control (LoC), trade and its attendant infrastructural logistics are receiving final touches in New Delhi.

Both New Delhi and Islamabad have agreed to start the cross-border trade at the meeting of the joint working group on confidence-building measures (CBMs) via Uri-Muzaffarabad road and Poonch-Rawalakote routes.

The Kargil-Skardu route is to be added later to the list. The LoC trade is regarded as a major CBM in the bilateral relations of the two neighboring countries.

Officials from the countries who met in New Delhi on Monday finalized the “modalities” for starting the trade, a statement from India’s External Affairs Ministry said.

The agreement on trade across the heavily militarized Line of Control which serves as de facto border between Indian and Pakistani administered zones comes three years after talks began on the matter. Reviewing the measures at a high level meeting in Srinagar last evening, state governor, N.N. Vohra observed that the arrangements would be ready on Uri-Muzaffarabad route by Oct. 15 and on Poonch-Rawalakote route by end October.

The joint working group has short-listed the items for trade between the two sides which will be finalized in consultation with the respective governments. A government spokesman said in Srinagar visits of trade delegations from the two sides of the divided Kashmir are expected to materialize shortly.