KERAN (Pakistan), June 10: Hundreds of Kashmiris on Sunday staged an emotional demonstration on the banks of a fast-flowing river to urge Pakistan and India to withdraw troops from the disputed Himalayan region.

Tearful relatives here waved across the gushing Neelum to their families in Indian-held Kashmir, using loudspeakers to try to speak to them, a photographer said. But the deafening roar of the river — about 60 metres wide at the village of Keran — was too loud for the cries to carry across.

About 600 men and women gathered by the river in Keran, about 90km northeast of Muzaffarabad. Many migrated to the capital of Azad Kashmir in 1990 to escape violence.

The gathering, called by nationalists, was a rare occasion — the authorities do not normally allow such events on the river.

For Ashraf Jan, who left her mother and father to come to Muzaffarabad with her aunt in 1947, it was almost too much.

Overwhelmed with emotion, the 70-year-old had to be stopped by relatives from jumping in the furious river to try to reach her ageing parents on the other side.

Indian police and military personnel did not allow people on the other side to come near the river bank and they were left to wave from a distance.

Arif Shahid, president of the Jammu Kashmir National Liberation Conference, urged India and Pakistan to divert military spending to help the poor in both countries.—AFP