ISLAMABAD, 19 October 2005 — Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf yesterday said Pakistan would open its borders to Kashmiris from India to help their relatives in relief and reconstruction after a devastating earthquake struck the scenic region on Oct. 8
“We have decided now we would allow any amount of people coming from across the Line of Control to our part of Kashmir to meet their relatives and assist in the reconstruction effort,” Musharraf told reporters.
He said he wanted the two sides to open up at “many other points” across the Line of Control, the military border in Kashmir since 1949, besides a recently launched bus service from Muzaffarabad to Indian Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar. “Why not have many more routes and why not facilitate everyone coming across? The modalities of this needs to be worked out. And we expect a response from the Indian side,” Musharraf said.
“No formal proposal has been made to New Delhi. It is being put across through you,” he said, referring to the media.
India welcomed the proposal. “We welcome the offer that has been made. This is in line with India’s advocacy of greater movement across the Line of Control for relief work and closer people-to-people contacts,” said Navtej Sarna, India’s Foreign Ministry spokesman.
“India is willing to facilitate such movement, but we await word from Pakistan about the practical details of implementing this intention,” Sarna said.
Musharraf’s statement came as relief workers stressed the urgency of providing shelter to thousands of people whose houses have been flattened in the quake.
The United Nations warned time was running out for the quake survivors, with half a million yet to receive help and not enough tents in the world to keep them warm this winter.
Bulldozers broke open roads to push into the isolated Himalayas, choppers roared into blue skies and trucks and mules shifted supplies to more than three million people made homeless by the disaster 10 days ago.
“It has started snowing in the hills, people are suffering from fever and they are likely to die — we need tents and blankets immediately,” said Yussuf, 36, a farmer from Haryal village who trekked down to Ghari Dupatta after his son died in the quake.
Ghari Dupatta was made accessible for the first time since the earthquake after army bulldozers reopened a key road from Muzaffarabad into the devastated Jhelum Valley. The army also managed to cut through the rocks and mud to clear the road from the razed northwestern town of Balakot to the mountain town of Sanghar, a crucial outpost for far-flung villages.
But even with around 100 helicopter sorties yesterday, the head of the UN’s World Food Program (WFP), James Morris, said that time was running out. “The aid agencies have managed to give some help to hundreds of thousands of people, but there are an estimated half a million more people out there in desperate need,” Morris said in a statement.
“People don’t just need food. First of all they need shelter, blankets and medical assistance — then food and clean water,” Morris said.
— Additional input from agencies
