Kashmir frontier ‘softening’ shows success

NEW DELHI - Declaring their peace process irreversible, nuclear rivals India and Pakistan agreed last night to open up the heavily militarised frontier dividing Kashmir, capping a successful visit by President General Pervez Musharraf.

In a rare show of unity, Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said they would work towards a "soft border" in Kashmir, opening meeting points for divided families and boosting cross-border trade, travel and co-operation.

Singh, reading out a joint statement next to Musharraf, said the two leaders, "conscious of the historic opportunity created by the improved relations and the overwhelming desire of the peoples of the two countries for durable peace ... determined that the peace process was now irreversible".

But although there was progress and agreement on the way to push the peace process forward, there was, as expected, no major breakthrough on a final solution to their dispute over Kashmir, at the heart of half a century of hostility and war.

"This is what I call going towards a soft border," Musharraf told Indian editors earlier. "But a soft border is not a final solution."

The pair agreed to increase bus services between the divided parts of the Himalayan region and open the fenced and heavily guarded frontier, once dubbed the world's most dangerous flashpoint by the United States, to freight trucks and pilgrims.

Some Indian analysts believe softening the ceasefire line could eventually lead to its forming a new border to end the dispute, although Pakistan rejects this.

The three-day visit by the Delhi-born Musharraf was originally intended as an informal trip to watch Pakistan play India in cricket - Pakistan won yesterday - but effectively turned into a summit with the Pakistan-born Singh.

Analysts and commentators have welcomed the talks, four years after Musharraf walked away from a failed summit in the Taj Mahal city of Agra, and three years after the nuclear rivals came close to another war over Kashmir.

While the two sides remain far from a settlement over their most contentious issue, the talks were to a degree a breakthrough for their positive tone - and the fact they happened at all.

The Hindustan Times' editorial said there were two lessons from the "cheery" outcome of Musharraf's second visit to India: "First, that given the tangled relations between the two countries, there can be no grand product from a single visit, as indeed was expected during the failed Agra summit of 2001.

"Second, that relations between the two countries are too delicate to allow such meetings to fail," it said.

Musharraf met Kashmiri separatist leaders, who he says must be brought into any peace process for it to work. The All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference leaders are due to meet Singh for the first time soon, although no date has been set.

Tens of thousands of people, many civilians, have died in a 15-year rebellion by Islamic rebels against Indian rule in Kashmir and violence continues unabated, despite the thaw.

Before yesterday's declaration, Pakistan's Nation newspaper criticised Musharraf for his willingness to give up on United Nations resolutions for Kashmiris to choose between India and Pakistan, "a just and eminently practical solution".

- REUTERS