LAHORE, Oct 18: A three-member delegation of Indian parliamentarians, together with three truckloads of relief goods, arrived here through the Wagah border.

“Both Pakistan and India should open their doors in the hour of need and grief. Indians are yearning for reaching the earthquake victims in Pakistan,” MP Nirmala Deshpandey told Dawn after she crossed over the border on a wheelchair.

She said hundreds of Indian doctors, including specialists to deal with such situation, wanted to come to Pakistan. The doctors and other such volunteers should be facilitated on a priority basis, including issuance of visas, she said.

Ms Deshpandey is accompanied by two more MPs — Hannan Mollah from West Bangal and Abdur Rasheed Shaheen from Indian held Kashmir — on a two-day visit to Pakistan to express solidarity with the quake victims.

Her hosts from Pakistan Social Forum were not allowed by the Pakistan Rangers to greet her right at the border crossing and were made to wait for her at the Customs offices. “This is quite unfair. It could be just an attempt to discourage such a great cause,” one of the hosts, MNA Chaudhry Manzoor of the PPP, regretted.

“Our people are in high spirits and eager to help Pakistanis. We during our visits to different states have found that our people would prefer to contribute more towards this side of Kashmir. They wanted us to do a maximum for Pakistan-controlled part of Kashmir because it is the worst hit area,” said Mr Shaheen.

He added people of Indian Kashmir had also suggested him to open a route from their side to enter the Pakistani side of Kashmir for immediate, early and easy supply of relief goods. “I knew it was not possible,” he said smilingly.

Ms Deshpandey said the delegation was supposed to enter Pakistan with the relief goods, which the authorities on both sides did not facilitate. “Our trucks have been halted on Indian side of the border. The forces on the Indian side told us that the relief goods would be allowed an entry into Pakistan only after a search. They told us that the goods would be offloaded on Pakistani trucks at the border line, instead the trucks rolling into this side of the border,” she said.

Ms Deshpandey said both the countries should not behave like this and understand the gravity of the situation.