ISLAMABAD, 2 December 2003 — Pakistan yesterday denied the latest reconciliatory moves to restore air links and a cease-fire with India on the eastern borders were motivated by external pressures.
Masood Khan, the foreign office spokesman, however, admitted that the United States, European Union and other members of the international community “had been working behind the scenes to nudge the two South Asian neighbors into talks”.
Following a announcement by President Pervez Musharraf Sunday on the resumption of air links and overflights, both nations yesterday agreed to resume simultaneous flights and allow overflights to each other’s carriers on reciprocal basis from Jan. 1.
“President Musharraf facilitated the breakthrough (in bilateral relations) in the talks on the issue that began in New Delhi this morning,” Khan said.
“Had he not taken the decision, these talks would have been stalled and would not have made any progress,” Khan said, adding the talks in New Delhi were held in a cordial and friendly atmosphere.
Following an attack on the Indian Parliament in December 2001, India had severed all communication with Pakistan, blaming the attack on Pakistan-based militants. The resumption of overflights has been on the cards since the revival of a cross-border bus service between New Delhi and Lahore last July.
The enforcement of an all-encompassing cease-fire announced last week by Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali accelerated the pace of the normalization process.
For the first time in more than two decades, guns have been silent since Tuesday night when both countries agreed to hold fire on the Line of Control (LOC) dividing the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir, as well as on the international borders separating the two countries.
Meanwhile, Kashmiris separated by years of conflict between Pakistan and India gathered on either bank of the rushing Neelum River yesterday, shouting greetings to long-separated relatives and hurling letters wrapped around stones across the boundary line.
The spectacle would have been unthinkable before the cease-fire. But yesterday, hundreds flocked to the 30-meter wide river — which separates Indian and Pakistani held territory — to catch sight of loved ones on the opposite bank. Roads leading to the river have been closed for years because of intense shelling between the two armies.
“Now I can cry out to them, and gesture to them, but it’s very unnatural,” said Raja Azhar Khan, 60, as he waved across the water at his two younger brothers. “I cannot even shake hands with my brothers because the river is separating us.”
Khan said he fled from India 13 years ago, after he was suspected by authorities of harboring Kashmiri separatist rebels fighting Indian rule.
Standing on the rocky river bank, relatives threw gifts of cigarettes, biscuits, candy and even Kashmiri coconuts across the water, gesturing wildly and bellowing to make themselves heard in the mountain-ringed valley. Some raised their hands in prayer, wishing others good health.
