MUZAFFARABAD: Intra-Kashmir traders from both sides of the Line of Control have called upon governments in Islamabad and New Delhi to meet some of their pressing demands for smooth operation of the activity.

The demands were made in a joint statement issued at the conclusion of their around 90-minute meeting at the Kaman bridge in the Chakothi-Uri sector, some 62 kilometres south of here, on Thursday. Eleven traders from India-held Kashmir (IHK) and four from Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) participated in the meeting. Apart from the army officials, two civilian officials from both sides, associated with the trans-LoC trade, also attended the meeting.

India and Pakistan should issue multiple entry travel permits to intra-Kashmir traders to help them travel to opposite sides to choose tradable items in consultations with each other, the traders demanded.

The list of the tradable goods from each side should be expanded so that the activity could witness a boost in trade activities instead of decline, they added.

Also read: Pakistan-India trade coalition

They also demanded installation of latest vehicle scanners at Trade Facilitation Centres (TFCs) by both countries to curb any chance of smuggling.

India was asked to lift ban on phone calls from the IHK to Pakistan so that traders could contact their counterparts in the AJK as and when required.

Future meetings of trans-LoC traders should be held by rotation at the TFCs in Chakothi in AJK and Salamabad in IHK, instead of the Kaman bridge, they said, requesting both governments to ensure monthly exhibitions of tradable items at their respective TFCs.

Apart from demands about their business activity, the traders also seized the opportunity to make an appeal to both India and Pakistan to allow Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control to travel across and meet each other simply on the basis of State Subject and Domicile certificates, rather than a cumbersome permit regime.

At the end of the meeting, AJK traders presented traditional sweets to their fellows from across the divide. In return, they were served with wazwan, Kashmir’s ceremonial multi-course meal, for the luncheon.

When contacted by Dawn, Ajaz Ahmed Meer, Secretary of Information, Jammu Kashmir Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who participated the meeting from here, said that it was a fruitful meeting which discussed various issues hampering trade activity and their solution.

“The Kashmiris involved in trans-LoC trade are less for money minting and more for strengthening of relations between the two sides,” he said.

He recalled that India and Pakistan had launched intra-Kashmir trade as a confidence building measure on Kashmir and added that it was incumbent upon the two governments to remove all bottlenecks to the activity to make it a success and thus bolster peace.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play