SRINAGAR, Dec 5 - Thousands of families in Indian-administered Kashmir are excited at the prospect of meeting their relatives in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, if a proposal to start a bus service on a road that was closed 50 years ago gets the diplomatic green light.

The Rawalpindi Road connects the capital cities of the Indian and Pakistani sections - Srinagar and Muzaffarabad - and cuts across the 750-kilometer Line of Control (LoC) that splits Kashmir.

The Kashmiris' hopes have surged because of two key developments. One, last week's ceasefire by India and Pakistan put an end to nearly 14 years of intermittent shelling across the LoC.

And two, on Monday, Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf expressed willingness to consider the reopening of the 180-kilometer road in response to India's proposals to end the subcontinental chill.

"It would be a historic event if a cross-LoC bus service is allowed between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad," says Syed Maqbool Andrabi, an affluent garment dealer from Srinagar whose family is separated by the LoC.

Andrabi, 60, has not visited the families of his four brothers and two sisters settled in Pakistan-administered Kashmir for the past ten years because of hostilities between the two countries.

"The recent peace moves have rekindled my hopes and I am looking forward to traveling by bus to Muzaffarabad," says a perked-up Andrabi, who reels off the names of his nephews and nieces waiting to see him across the border.

Shamma Begum, 70, of the northern district of Baramulla is longing to meet her sister and grandchildren. She last saw them five years ago after the death of her son, an adviser to former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto.

"They used to contact me over the phone, but since May this year the lines have gone dead," she laments.

The Indian government has snapped telephone links to Pakistan from Kashmir.

There are many others waiting to discover their roots across the LoC once the bus gets the all clear. For Ziaul Haq Mantoo, 21, of Zablipora village in south Kashmir, it would offer an opportunity to meet his mother's family.

"More than 45 years ago my father got married in Pakistan and returned with his wife - my mother - never to go back. She received letters from her brothers in the first few years, but then everything stopped," he says.

"She has some faint idea about her maternal home and I want to discover it," says Mantoo. His father is no longer alive to guide him in his endeavor though.

Syed Bashir, a junior minister in the state's one-year-old coalition government, wants to offer prayers at his father's grave situated in Pakistan's northern Punjab province.

"I have no words to express the feelings of the families which are divided by the cruel borders," he remarks.

But not everyone shares his enthusiasm. "A bus service on this route won't be as easy as the resumption of the train between the two countries or the Delhi-Lahore bus service," says advocate Ashraf Wani.

"The bus will ply between cities in disputed territory occupied by both India and Pakistan," he says. "Who's going to issue the travel documents for the passengers and who will monitor their movements?"

Wani's apprehensions perhaps arise because of the diplomatic roadblocks that came in the way after the idea to ply the bus was floated by India.

Pakistan's foreign secretary Reyaz Khokhar has proposed checkpoints manned by UN officials and travel documents issued by them.

But Wani feels it may not be acceptable to India which considers Kashmir an integral part of the country. "India would prefer to allow passengers with Indian passports only," he says.

Others see a more mellowed Pakistani approach this time. "After Khokhar's response, Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and Musharraf expressed willingness to open the road but they avoided mentioning any UN role," points out political scientist Aziz Ahmad.

Ahmed speculates that Pakistan may have some other alternative to ensure cross-LoC travel for Kashmiris.

But whatever way the authorities in the two countries swing the bus deal, the prospective travelers say travel documents must be processed in Kashmir itself.

"It would be a futile exercise if passengers are required to get their travel documents stamped in the Indian capital, New Delhi," says Andrabi.

Andrabi has been through the ordeal of managing travel documents in New Delhi in the past when he had to travel to Pakistan after the death of his brother.

"I had to stay in Delhi for ten days in the scorching heat to get a visa, managing it only after the intervention of an influential Kashmiri federal minister," he recalls.

Muhammad Yasin Malik's case is typical. The 35-year-old villager from north Kashmir's Baramulla district was on his way to Pakistan to meet his uncle in 1999 through the Wagah check point in the Indian state of Punjab when he was arrested by immigration and customs officials.

"My passport was seized because I refused to pay them a bribe of US $20. Instead of allowing me to enter Pakistan, I was put in jail for four months," he alleges.

After his release, he had to present himself in a special court in Punjab every alternate month. But Malik hasn't lost hope. He's confident that one day he will travel to see his uncle's family in a Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus.

Says the head of the political science department at Kashmir University, Noor Ahmad Baba, "The bus service will build confidence between India and Pakistan."

Baba maintains that a friendly atmosphere has to exist between the two countries before negotiations on vexed issues such as Kashmir can begin.

Businessmen in the state are also upbeat about the proposed path-breaking step. "If the road is opened, trade will get a tremendous boost," says a trader from north Kashmir.

(OneWorld)