- Title: PAKISTAN: KASHMIRI FAMILIES UNITED BY BUS MEETING
- Date: 9th April 2005
- Summary: (W5) MUZAFFARABAD, AZAD (PAKISTANI) KASHMIR (APRIL 07, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. SLV NEWLY-ARRIVED INDIAN KASHMIRIS SITTING WITH FAMILIES IN BUS TERMINAL; MV INDIAN KASHMIRI MOHAMMAD SALEEM KHAN HUGGING RELATIVES (5 SHOTS) 0.26 2. (SOUNDBITE) (Urdu) RANAAB ZAFAR, NIECE OF KHAN SAYING: "I am happy at his coming. My father died yearning (to see his relatives). He was here since fifty years. His entire family is there (Indian Kashmir); his brothers, sisters, everyone." 0.38 3. MV /SCU LETTERS FROM RELATIVES BEING GIVEN TO NEWLY ARRIVED PASENGERS 0.48 4. (SOUNDBITE) (Urdu) TANWEER KHAN, COUSIN OF NEWLY ARRIVED INDIAN KASHMIRI, MOHAMMAD NASIRUDDIN, SAYING: "We heard about Kashmir from our mother. Today our dream has come true. You asked how I was feeling; well, if your brother comes, you naturally feel happy." 0.57 5. SLV/MV INDIAN KASHMIRIS SITTING WITH FAMILIES 1.07 6. (SOUNDBITE) (English) BEENISH FAROOQ, GRANDDAUGHTER OF MOHAMMAD NASIRUDDIN, SAYING: "We all are feeling so good about it because we are seeing all of them for the first time and we have not seen them in all our life. So its nice to see them. Yeah, we are feeling so good and so happy." 1.18 7. MV SALEEM KHAN HUGGING HIS NEICE AND GRANDDAUGHTERS; MV UNIDENTIFIED INDIAN KASHMIRI SENDING HOME A MESSAGE ON INTERNET; MV INDIAN KASHMIRI TALKING ON PHONE TO SRINAGAR (5 SHOTS) 1.48 8. (SOUNDBITE) (URDU) MOHAMMAD NASIRUDDIN, INDIAN KASHMIRI, SAYING: "This is simply giving oxygen to a dying patient. There should be a permanent medicine for we Kashmiris living on both the sides of LOC." 1.57 9. WIDE OF REUNITED FAMILIES GATHERED 2.03 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 24th April 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MUZAFFARABAD, AZAD PAKISTANI KASHMIR
- Country: Pakistan
- Reuters ID: LVA4J8PHL0KJYA68OMJE5YI5WVAF
- Story Text: Kashmiri families united by bus meeting in Pakistan.
Kashmiris wept and hugged each other on Thursday
(April 7, 2005) as a new bus service across their beautiful but
blighted land reunited families split up by politics and
war for nearly 60 years.
Nineteen Indian Kashmiris defied separatist rebel
threats and crossed into Pakistani-controlled Kashmir to
meet their relatives after 31 Pakistani Kashmiris walked
across a bridge the other way, into India, to find their
kin.
Frail-looking Mohammad Saleem Khan sat surrounded by
his extended family, beaming at his nieces and
grandchildren.
"I am happy at his coming," said Khan's niece, Ranaab
Zafar. "My father died yearning (to see his relatives). He
was here since fifty years. His entire family is there
(Indian Kashmir); his brothers, sisters , everyone," she
added.
Family members handed Khan letters from those who could
not come to greet him.
Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided since shortly
after India and Pakistan won independence from Britain in
1947 and control of the territory remains the most
contentious issue between the nuclear-armed rivals.
The region has been the cause of two of the three wars
between India and Pakistan and nearly sparked another in
2002.
"We heard about Kashmir from our mother," said Tanweer
Khan, cousin of another newly-arrived Indian Kashmiri, Mohammad
Nasiruddin.
"Today our dream has come true. You asked how I was
feeling; well, if your brother comes, you naturally feel
happy," he smiled.
The bus service between the Indian and Pakistani
sectors of Kashmir is the most concrete sign of progress in
a cautious peace process relaunched last year.
The service will only link the main cities of Indian
and Pakistani Kashmir every two weeks but many Kashmiris
hope it will be the first step to a lasting resolution of
the dispute despite attacks by the Muslim rebels who see it
as a sell-out.
But politics and fighting were far from the thoughts of
relatives hugging and being showered with rose petals by
wellwishers on Thursday.
"We all are feeling so good about it because we are
seeing all of them for the first time and we have not seen
them in all our life," said eighteen year old Beenish
Farooq.
"So its nice to see them. Yeah, we are feeling so good
and so happy," she added
The region has been the cause of two of the three wars
between India and Pakistan and nearly sparked another in
2002.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed in a
vicious insurgency against Indian rule in its part of
Kashmir and Indian and Pakistani troops regularly exchanged
fire across forested mountain slopes until a 2003 ceasefire.
Amidst the happiness, the fear of a return to old
tensions still haunted many of those assembled at the bus
terminal on the chilly Thursday evening.
"This is simply giving oxygen to a dying patient. There
should be a permanent medicine for we Kashmiris living on
both the sides of LOC," said Mohammad Nasiruddin, who had
come home after fifty years.
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