Pak, India open fifth crossing point along LoC
Divided Kashmiri families to cross border today
Staff Report

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan and India have opened the fifth and final crossing along the de facto border splitting earthquake-ravaged Kashmir but allowed only humanitarian supplies across.
Pakistani and Indian officials greeted each other at the crossing opening Wednesday.
“The Hajipir-Uri crossing on the Line of Control (Loc) in Kashmir opened today,” an military official told this scribe.
Hajipir is on the Pakistani side and Uri is in the Indian zone.
Both sides exchanged relief items including blankets and rations at the crossing, which was to remain open until 1000 GMT, the official said.
The neighbours agreed to open five crossing points to aid humanitarian efforts following the October 8 quake that killed over 73,000 people in Pakistan and its part of Kashmir and 1,300 people in Indian Kashmir.
Each of the five crossing points would open once a week for crossings. The two countries opened the first crossing along the Line of Control on November 7 in Poonch district, followed two days later by another in the Uri sector. The third crossing at Titwal was opened on Saturday.
The move to open the crossings after almost 60 years was seen as a boost to the peace process between the two countries, who have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, which they each hold in part but claim in full.
Indian Kashmiris will be allowed to cross the de facto border with Pakistani Kashmir on Thursday to check on family living in the earthquake-ruined region, according to a Pakistani official.
The move comes weeks after Pakistan and India agreed to the humanitarian gesture, to help the movement of aid and to allow divided families to meet across the militarised boundary.
Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told media on Wednesday the first movement of people will be across the border between Chakothi and the Indian town of Uri.
Thursday’s crossing will be one-way traffic, with 83 people from held Kashmir allowed to make the trip to Pakistani territory.
The two South Asian rivals agreed last month to open five crossings on the heavily militarised Line of Control, a ceasefire line dividing Kashmir.
While they have exchanged relief goods at these crossings this month, no people have yet crossed because the Indian side was not ready.
Pakistan’s military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan said people will be allowed to cross the other four border points later this month. “We wanted to allow the people from both sides to cross the Line of Control in the day time on a daily basis. But India has shown some administrative problems in this regard,” he said.