Pakistani newsmen to visit Valley

Published October 3, 2004

ISLAMABAD, Oct 2: A group of Pakistani journalists will write off a taboo when they arrive in the Indian-held part of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday for a rare peep into a territory that has been out of bounds to them for more than half a century.

The week-long trip, an offshoot of a nascent detente between Pakistan and India, will take about 20 journalists from Pakistan and Azad Kashmir to Srinagar and Jammu in what its non-governmental organizers call a 'major initiative' towards a free flow of information across the Line of Control.

The South Asian Free Media Association (Safma), an NGO seeking free movement of journalists and information across South Asian frontiers, has sponsored the unprecedented trip which will be followed by a similar visit by journalists from India and occupied Kashmir to Azad Kashmir and Pakistan in November.

The Pakistani group will begin its trip with a three-day stay in Jammu and later spend four days in Srinagar.

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