The Hindu : National : Meeting points remain unused along LoC

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jul 02, 2006

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National

Meeting points remain unused along LoC

Staff Reporter

Tattapani: Allowing meetings of the divided families along the Line of Control, an important ingredient of the whole set-up of confidence building measures agreed on between India and Pakistan, has failed to take off.

Efforts after the October 2005 earthquake, which caused widespread destruction on both sides of the LoC, resulted in the opening of five points along the border. It was decided between India and Pakistan that the civilians with the necessary permit can cross each other's territory. As permit was hard to get by, it was also agreed to construct meeting points where the divided families could meet every fortnight with the permission of authorities of both sides. Even though at many places along the LoC, meeting points have already been constructed on the Indian side, the meeting of divided families has not been allowed. This is based on the fact that the orders have still to trickle down to the local commanders and the state level machinery on either side.

Civilians gather

Officials who man the LoC told The Hindu that a huge number of civilians are gathering along the LoC every fortnight but in the absence of any procedure agreed on between the two sides, they are helpless to facilitate the meeting of civilians at the respective points. For instance at the Tattapani-Mendhar crossing point, though the crossing over of civilians went on smoothly some days back, the authorities have no orders to allow meetings of the civilians who had gathered on both sides.

A crowd of over 500 people had gathered on both sides of the LoC to meet their relatives and friends but they could not do so in the absence of any procedure. agreed for the meetings of civilians.

After several hours of waiting, all the gathered civilians left the Zero Point.

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