India and Pakistan opened a trade link across divided Kashmir for the first time in six decades today in a step aimed at reducing tension between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
The decision, taken only last month, to allow limited trade across the front line in Kashmir symbolises attempts to solve a bitter dispute over the Himalayan region by creating "soft borders" allowing the free movement of goods and people.
White doves of peace were released today as 14 Pakistani trucks bedecked with the national flag crossed a bridge into Indian Kashmir carrying rice, onions and dried fruit.
Dozens of school children chanted "Long Live Pakistan" and "Kashmir will become a part of Pakistan" as a brass band played patriotic music.
It was the first time vehicles had been allowed across the ceasefire line and the newly constructed Aman Setu, or Peace Bridge, since a 1948 war. Lorries are expected to drive a few kilometres inside rival territory and unload.
"I'm quite confident that this beginning will lead us to proper and regular trade and commerce between both sides," Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan, prime minister of Pakistani Kashmir, said.
But he warned against hopes the opening of trade across an old ceasefire line and the de facto border, known as the Line of Control, would lead to a quick solution of the more than 60-year dispute over Muslim-majority Kashmir.
The south Asian neighbours who claim Kashmir in full but rule in parts have fought two wars over the region and were on the verge of a third in 2002.
Reuters