MUZAFFARABAD, Dec 1: Indian authorities declined to accept the lists of intending travellers from Azad Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday as 25 Kashmiris from both sides crossed the Line of Control (LoC) on foot from the Chakothi-Uri crossing point. Those who walked across the dividing line included 16 fresh travellers from held Kashmir but there was no new traveller from the AJK side. Other than them, four and five returning residents of AJK and held Kashmir, also crossed the LoC to reunite with their families.

The crossing from the AJK side took place at about 1pm and two hours later from the held side through a footbridge laid over a stream marking the LoC.

The fresh travellers from held Kashmir, included four women and 12 men, and according to Mr Kayani, their names had already been cleared by the AJK authorities for the trans-LoC bus service which had to be suspended after the Oct 8 earthquake.

“I have crossed into this territory for the first time. The killer earthquake deprived me of my brother and I have come to condole and console his family,” said Ali Mohammad Mir, 70, a resident of Uri sector.

Another traveller, Bano Begum, said she had also lost her only brother in Muzaffarabad in the earthquake.