MUZAFFARABAD, July 1: Authorities in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Tuesday reopened after more than a year’s closure a major road which the India army announced on loudspeakers from across the militarised border they would no longer target, officials said.

“Indian troops today made announcements from their posts across the Line of Control (LoC) through loudspeakers that the road should be opened and they will not target it,” senior police officer Raja Ghulam Sarwar told AFP.

The road winding through the north-eastern Neelum valley was closed to traffic due to Indian shelling from across the LoC.

Following the assurances, the AJK public works department sent bulldozers to clear the road of obstacles, which would open on Wednesday, he said.

The road is in range of India’s small arms fire and has been frequently targeted by Indian troops over the past decade resulting in dozens of deaths.

Shelling led to its closure to traffic for three years from 1994. Within two months of its opening in November 1997, authorities had to close it again due to a resumption of shelling from across the LOC.

Since then it has remained mostly closed.

Authorities have built two alternate routes in the valley to avoid Indian shelling, but they are also vulnerable to Indian artillery fire.

“Certainly, the opening of the road will bring relief for the nearly 150,000 residents of the valley,” Sarwar said. Sarwar said traffic would be allowed to move on the road from Wednesday.

In February this year, groups of women twice staged demonstrations calling upon Islamabad to take measures to open the road for traffic.

In June, hundreds of valley residents marched to the UN office and handed over a letter calling on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to persuade India not to “target the road, civilian population and educational institutions in Neelum valley”.—AFP