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India, Pakistan trade across divided Kashmir completes one year | Traders from India and Pakista administered Kashmir met in Kashmir's Uri town on Wednesday to celebrate one year of trade. The trade link opened last year for
the first time in six decades, a step aimed at reducing tension between the neighbours.
"We have celebrated the anniversary of the cross-LoC trade that started a year
back. We have received good results since the trade link across the border from
both the countries. We are trying our best to promote the trade and make it more
meaningful," said State Minister for Industries and Commerce Surjit Singh Slathia.
The trade link across the frontline in Kashmir, though on a limited scale, symbolises
attempts to create "soft borders" allowing the easier movement of goods and people.
Trucks were allowed to cross over just once a week, with a limited list of goods
allowed. The trading began with supply of 21 products including dates, praying
mats, spices, dry fruits, oranges and slippers from Muzaffarabad in Pakistan;
while vegetables, handicrafts and apples were the items sent from India. Though
the trans-LoC trade has been normal over the past one year, but traders say they
face a lot of problems, as the trade is purely on a barter system, where the goods
sent from both the sides are not paid in cash, but are exchanged with other items.
"The government of both the countries should provide some facilities to us like
bank and telephone lines. Further there should be more exchange of goods to promote
this trade," said Sayed Wajid, a trader from Pakistan. The opening of trade in
Kashmir marked the latest in a series of tentative peace moves between India and
Pakistan that have done little to resolve their central territorial dispute, which
has hobbled regular trade across their international border further south for
decades. |
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