ON THE LINE OF CONTROL: The army captain whose government is building the controversial barrier says that, when completed, it will protect his people from attacks by extremists.

Once the high-tech fence is finished, militants will no longer be able to cross into his side of the disputed territory and kill his soldiers and civilians, he says.

On the other side of the barrier, anguished Muslim villagers protest that it is taking their land and cutting them off from their loved ones.

The day before the world court ruled on Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank, the arguments, so regularly rehearsed, certainly sound familiar. But this fence, running for almost 1,000 kilometres, is in Kashmir. And the two sides at loggerheads are India and Pakistan, not Israel and the Palestinians.

"Once infiltration stops, we will be able to finish off militancy in (occupied) Kashmir in no time," Indian Army Captain Sachin, who uses only one name, said at Sonapindi, a post 3,350 metres high in the Himalayas overlooking Azad Kashmir.

The fence - which features Israeli-designed ground sensors that signal movement - includes two rows of barbed wire that are partly electrified. And landmines line the ground to maim anyone who makes it across.

India began trying to erect the fence after the 1999 Kargil conflict, but work ground to a halt due to firing from the other side. And it appeared the fence would remain unbuilt. However, in November, Pakistan and India agreed a ceasefire in Kashmir - ending nearly daily shelling between the two countries - since when India has hurried to finish the fence.

Pakistan continues to formally protest the fence building, saying it violates 1949 and 1972 agreements, but has toned down its rhetoric and done nothing to stop the construction.

Referring to the Line of Control (LoC), foreign ministry spokesman Masood Khan said: "This fence is not altering the status of the LoC, the LoC remains there, but there is no justification for building or constructing a fence that is creating so much misunderstanding between the two countries."

He denied that the lack of concerted action by Pakistan to stop the fence being built was tacit approval for its construction.

"Pakistan has not given any approval - tacit or explicit - to the Indian government for continuing with ... the fence." But the issue had to be seen in a wider context, he said. Rather than take India to the world court, as the Palestinians did with Israel, Pakistan is seeking dialogue.

"We have started ... dialogue after a prolonged phase of tension and confrontation. Leaders of the two countries are willing to back this process with statesmanship and political will and ... we hope to address all issues - human rights, fencing, everything."

But Tahir Mohiuddin, an analyst in Srinagar, said that while Pakistan still objects to the fence, its policy is seen as effective approval for the construction, attributing this Pakistani stance to US pressure.

And Pakistani political analyst Mohammad Afzal Niazi called the change of tactics by Pakistan "a major shift in policy". For Kashmir, "allowing the barrier to be built does weaken the Pakistani case," he said, though it need not be "fatal".

In the Neelum valley, villagers watch with growing despondency as the fence lengthens daily.

"The fence has divided one household from the other," resident Ameerudin Mughal said, fearful that with the fence complete, the LoC will become a permanent barrier, leaving India in control of two-thirds of the region for ever.-AFP