Quake prompts dramatic accord on Kashmir contacts

The catastrophic earthquake which shattered Pakistani Kashmir opened a door to reconciliation with Pakistan's old foe India yesterday.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf made a dramatic appeal to India to allow the quake-stricken people of divided Kashmir to help each other deal with the catastrophe.

India agreed with unusual speed.

"We will allow every Kashmiri to come across the Line of Control and assist in the reconstruction effort," Mr Musharraf told a news conference in the region, the cause of two of the three wars the countries have fought.

"We would also like to facilitate the political leaders on both sides to go across and interact each with other and assist each other in whatever reconstruction effort," he said.

"If India agrees, we would like to work out the formalities," he said in Muzaffarabad, the destroyed capital of Pakistani Kashmir, as his government raised the number of confirmed deaths in the October 8 quake to 42,000, a toll expected to rise substantially.

"We welcome the offer," India replied. "This is in line with India's advocacy of greater movement across the LOC (Line of Control) for relief work and closer people-to-people contacts."

Survivors have accused both governments of putting politics before humanitarian help since the quake, which struck Pakistani Kashmir particularly hard.

The size of the political divide was underlined yesterday by the assassination of Indian Kashmir's junior education minister, Ghulam Nabi Lone, by militants New Delhi says are supported by Pakistan, a charge Islamabad denies.

Mr Musharraf, clearly trying to put aside the bitter dispute over control of Kashmir, said he was extremely grateful for the aid sent by India, whose own part of Kashmir had 1,300 dead.

He said Pakistan would accept anything New Delhi offered, short of a military crossing of the Line of Control - a ceasefire line and de facto border dividing Kashmir and its people.

The two governments have been engaged in a delicate dance since last year to improve relations, and both said yesterday they would make it possible for Kashmiris to telephone each other across the divide.

An agreement to open the border would be a leap forward as thousands of people are still waiting in their ruined villages for relief which Islamabad admits could take up to another 10 days to reach them.

Many villagers, cold and hungry, have given up waiting for help and trekked to the nearest town. Some villagers walked as far as 35 kilometres to Muzaffarabad to pick up food and blankets as winter looms.