KAMAN POST, Kashmir — On Oct. 30, Indian and Pakistani officials agreed to allow people from the earthquake-devastated areas of Kashmir to cross the Line of Control, the heavily militarized boundary between the countries, to comfort family members on the other side.
On Wednesday, at this isolated crossing point, between the Pakistani-controlled town of Chakothi and the Indian-controlled town of Uri, not a single Kashmiri crossed the border. Instead, smiling Indian and Pakistani officials exchanged several hundred sacks of aid, posed for photographs and congratulated themselves on taking a "step in the right direction."
"We wanted to go to the other side and read prayers for the dead and to give moral support to survivors," said Ghulam Kadir, an 80-year-old Kashmiri man on the Indian side of the boundary whose sister, brother-in-law and son-in-law perished on the Pakistani side in the Oct. 8 earthquake. "At least during this period, both governments should have made the crossing easy."
But a full month after the earthquake killed 73,000 people in Pakistan and 1,300 in India, officials from the two countries continue to blame each other.
The cause of the current delay is the failure of the two sides to exchange lists of Kashmiris who want to cross the Line of Control. Both sides fear that the other will use the opening to slip spies and insurgents into their territory.
"We have not a received list from Pakistan," said L. Sreeramulu, a regional passport officer on the Indian side of the boundary.
Lt. Col. Shiragh Haider, a Pakistani army officer, said, "We asked yesterday to exchange the list; they said no."
On Thursday, no Kashmiris crossed the border either. Indian officials said they had sent a list to their Pakistani counterparts, who denied receiving it.
For 58 years, the Line of Control has divided tens of thousands of Kashmiri families. When Indian and Pakistani troops are not sniping or hurling shells at each other, divided Kashmiri parents, children and siblings sometimes gather here, where the border consists only of a narrow river, and wave, shout greetings and throw small gifts to one another.
In the weeks after the quake, when certain areas of Pakistan were accessible only from the Indian side, the locked-down border became a humanitarian issue. An Oct. 30 agreement appeared to resolve that issue, as well as herald a new era. Five crossing points along the Line of Control were to open this past Monday to allow for civilian crossings and the exchange of relief goods.
But Monday, the depth of Kashmiri frustration emerged. Monday, at the opening of the first new crossing point, between the Pakistani-controlled town of Rawalakot and Indian-controlled town of Poonch, Indian and Pakistani officials exchanged a small amount of supplies, but no Kashmiris were allowed to cross. Hundreds of Kashmiris grew angry and began chanting for Kashmir's independence from India and Pakistan. The police fired shots and tear gas into the air to disperse them.