. The Tribune,1 October 2005 CCS sets agenda for Natwar's Pak visit The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) met under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today, two days ahead of External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh's bilateral visit to Pakistan (October 2-5), and set the parameters for Mr Natwar Singh's talks with the Pakistani leadership.The EAM is going to Pakistan armed with a host of proposals for improving bilateral relations with Pakistan in such diverse fields as security, defence, trade and commerce, tourism and culture, consular matters, banking, information and broadcasting and telecommunications. The Dawn, 1 October 2005 Hopes for headway on Siachen Indian External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh will arrive here on Sunday evening aboard a special aircraft, leading a 15-member delegation for a review session of the composite dialogue with his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri. The two ministers will hold a separate meeting to kick-start the dormant Pakistan-India joint commission established in 1983.This will be the first highlevel contact between the two governments after the Sept 14 Musharraf-Manmohan meeting in New York that yielded no concrete outcome. The News, 1 October 2005 India liberalises visa, consular services NEW DELHI: India unveiled a slew of measures on Friday to spur people-to-people contacts with Pakistan as part of moves to boost a slow-moving peace process ahead of a trip to Islamabad by India's foreign minister.The security cabinet gave the go-ahead to liberalise consular and visa services - often difficult procedures for people on both sides of the border due to prickly relations between the South Asian nuclear rivals.The liberalisation of consular facilities will need an amendment to a 1982 India-Pakistan accord, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said. The amendment would be signed during Foreign Minister Natwar Singh's four-day visit to Islamabad The News, 1 October 2005 After Sarabjit, another Indian terrorist seeks release ISLAMABAD: As Sarabjit Singh is exploiting the media hype to defy death sentence, another Indian terrorist Kirpal Singh alias Goga of Gurdaspur (Punjab) has reportedly sent an SOS message to Indian prime minister through released compatriots from a Lahore jail.Kirpal Singh too is a RAW terrorist with Pakistani people's blood on his hands which he claimed by planting and executing a bomb. The Indian terrorist has borrowed Sarabjit's trademark false implication story, pleading innocence. The News, 1 October 2005 Pakistan, India to ink three treaties next week ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and India will ink three treaties next week here in the presence of their foreign ministers. One of the treaties will provide pre-notification of test-flight of missiles, officials said. The conspicuous missing in the agreement would be cruise missiles test-flight. The cruise-missile testing has been excluded from the list of missiles required to be notified at least 24 hours in advance.The other treaty will be pertaining to exchange of intelligence to check maritime smuggling and illicit movement/trade. The third treaty will deal with the liberalisation of visa facility for certain categories

and counsellor access to the prisoners of each other's country and exchange of lists of detainees twice a year. Outlines for the agreements were drawn up during the second round of talks under the Composite Dialogue Process early this month. Pakistan Times, 1 October 2005 India, and Pakistan hold talks on Bus services, Flights India and Pakistan met to agree details of new bus services between border cities and discuss an increase in flights as a part of a peace process,officials in both countries said.One set of talks was held at a hotel in the Indian capital of New Delhi on the "operationalisation of these two bus links -- LahoreAmritsar and Amritsar-Nankana. The Dawn, 2 October 2005 Interaction among Kashmiris needed: FM Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri has said that Kashmiri leaders on both sides of the Line of Control should be afforded more opportunities for interaction as they are in a position to come up with a solution to the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the aspirations of Islamabad, New Delhi and the region's people. The Tribune, 2 October 2005 Experts arrive for Baglihar inspection In efforts to iron out differences between India and Pakistan on the Indus river waters issue, a 13member team led by World Bank neutral expert,Raymond Lafitte arrived in Jammu for a 3-day inspection tour of Baglihar at Patnitop. Indian Express,2 October 2005 Armed with visa power,Natwar goes to Pakistan In trying to take the peace process forward after the slight chill in New York,External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh is bringing with him a proposal to revamp the rigid 20-year old visa protocol and remove restrictions peculiar to the two countries.The idea is to include more categories like business visas, tourist visas to groups,student visas besides increasing number of days and number of places allowed for travel for people from either side.

The Hindu, 3 October 2005 Natwar in Pakistan to give new thrust to peace talks External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh arrived here on Sunday night leading a 15-member high-level official delegation from five Ministries to give further impetus to the India-Pakistan peace dialogue. In the course of his four-day stay here, both sides will ink two agreements related to pre-notification of flight-testing of ballistic missiles and establishment of communication links between the Indian Coast Guard and the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PSMA). The Times of India, 3 October 2005 Natwar-Khurshid begin talks Pakistan and India opened talks on Monday a day after Indian External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh arrived, saying that the people and governments of both countries were determined to end decades of hostility. Natwar Singh first met his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri

separately at the foreign office. Later, officials from both countries joined them. India and Pakistan are expected to sign two agreements on Monday. One relates to pre-notifying each other about tests of ballistic missiles within 40 km of the border on both sides and the other will establish a hotline between Pakistan's Maritime Security Agency and India's Coast Guard. The two countries will also discuss a variety of bilateral issues ranging from trade to Jammu and Kashmir. Singh is expected to call on President Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday before flying to Karachi, where he will oversee the renovation being done at the Indian consulate that has been shut since 1992. Pakistan is also set to open its consulate in Mumbai. The ministers' talks will be followed by the first meeting since 1989 of the IndiaPakistan Joint Commission. The Indian Express, 3 October 2005 CBMs good, time to think Kashmir: Pak Minutes before External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh's plane touched down in Islamabad, his counterpart Khurshid M Kasuri underlined the centrality of the Kashmir issue in taking the peace process forward. There was a difference in view over the Iran issue as Pakistan had abstained while India voted Yet, Kasuri did not miss out on emphasising what Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf had sought to do in New York-the Kashmir issue. ''I don't underrate what the CBMs (confidence building measures) have achieved. But the one message that should go from tomorrow's meetings is that both countries are prepared to address the real dispute, which is that of peace in the state of Jammu and Kashmir,'' he said. The Tribune, 3 October 2005 Neutral team begins inspection of Baglihar project Endeavouring to adjudicate the riparian dispute between India and Pakistan, World Bank appointed Swiss neutral expert Raymond Lafitte today began inspecting the dam design and "peripherial setup" of the 450-mw Baglihar hydel project in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir. The Dawn, 3 October 2005 Guarded optimism ahead of talks: Pakistan, India to discuss Siachen, Sir Creek Foreign ministers of Pakistan and India are all set to hold the second round of all-encompassing talks here on Monday amid guarded optimism of some forward movement on Siachen and Sir Creek issues. The Indian External Affairs Minister, Mr Natwar Singh, arrived here late Sunday afternoon after attending the meeting of the cabinet committee on security. The News, 3 October 2005 Kasuri, Natwar optimistic about talks outcome On the eve of one of the most crucial talks between India and Pakistan starting on Monday at the Foreign Office between Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri and his Indian counterpart, Natwar Singh, Pakistan walks into the meeting with hopes that the sustained efforts of the last two years should not be wasted and the present climate of hope and expectations should not be converted into sheer cynicism.

The Hindu, 3 October 2005 Natwar in Pakistan to give new thrust to peace talks External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh arrived here on Sunday night leading a 15-member high-level

official delegation from five Ministries to give further impetus to the India-Pakistan peace dialogue. In the course of his four-day stay here, both sides will ink two agreements related to pre-notification of flight-testing of ballistic missiles and establishment of communication links between the Indian Coast Guard and the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PSMA). The Times of India, 3 October 2005 Natwar-Khurshid begin talks Pakistan and India opened talks on Monday a day after Indian External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh arrived, saying that the people and governments of both countries were determined to end decades of hostility. Natwar Singh first met his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri separately at the foreign office. Later, officials from both countries joined them. India and Pakistan are expected to sign two agreements on Monday. One relates to pre-notifying each other about tests of ballistic missiles within 40 km of the border on both sides and the other will establish a hotline between Pakistan's Maritime Security Agency and India's Coast Guard. The two countries will also discuss a variety of bilateral issues ranging from trade to Jammu and Kashmir. Singh is expected to call on President Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday before flying to Karachi, where he will oversee the renovation being done at the Indian consulate that has been shut since 1992. Pakistan is also set to open its consulate in Mumbai. The ministers' talks will be followed by the first meeting since 1989 of the IndiaPakistan Joint Commission. The Indian Express, 3 October 2005 CBMs good, time to think Kashmir: Pak Minutes before External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh's plane touched down in Islamabad, his counterpart Khurshid M Kasuri underlined the centrality of the Kashmir issue in taking the peace process forward. There was a difference in view over the Iran issue as Pakistan had abstained while India voted Yet, Kasuri did not miss out on emphasising what Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf had sought to do in New York-the Kashmir issue. ''I don't underrate what the CBMs (confidence building measures) have achieved. But the one message that should go from tomorrow's meetings is that both countries are prepared to address the real dispute, which is that of peace in the state of Jammu and Kashmir,'' he said. The Tribune, 3 October 2005 Neutral team begins inspection of Baglihar project Endeavouring to adjudicate the riparian dispute between India and Pakistan, World Bank appointed Swiss neutral expert Raymond Lafitte today began inspecting the dam design and "peripherial setup" of the 450-mw Baglihar hydel project in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir. The Dawn, 3 October 2005 Guarded optimism ahead of talks: Pakistan, India to discuss Siachen, Sir Creek Foreign ministers of Pakistan and India are all set to hold the second round of all-encompassing talks here on Monday amid guarded optimism of some forward movement on Siachen and Sir Creek issues. The Indian External Affairs Minister, Mr Natwar Singh, arrived here late Sunday afternoon after attending the meeting of the cabinet committee on security. The News, 3 October 2005 Kasuri, Natwar optimistic about talks outcome

On the eve of one of the most crucial talks between India and Pakistan starting on Monday at the Foreign Office between Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri and his Indian counterpart, Natwar Singh, Pakistan walks into the meeting with hopes that the sustained efforts of the last two years should not be wasted and the present climate of hope and expectations should not be converted into sheer cynicism.

The Hindu, 4 October 2005 Natwar Singh meets Musharraf External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh, today met Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, and discussed the progress in the ongoing composite dialogue process, amid indications of a possible breakthrough in solving the Siachen issue. Singh called on Musharraf at the Army House in Rawalpindi near here.Various issues including those covered under the composite dialogue process are understood to have figured at the meeting. The Hindu, 4 October 2005 Pak approaches NSG asking for similar US-India nuclear deal Pakistan has formally approached the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) seeking a deal similar to the one between United States and India to produce nuclear power, saying that it needed more atomic power plants to meet future energy requirements. Pakistan has urged the NSG, comprising developed industrial countries, not to single out Pakistan by providing nuclear energy to India in the region, local daily Dawn quoted officials here as saying The Times of India,4 October 2005 Indo-Pak commission to meet after 16 yrs The India-Pakistan joint commission will meet for the first time in 16 years when external affairs minister Natwar Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri restart proceedings on this on Tuesday. India will present to Pakistan three proposals, including liberalisation of the visa regime and improvement of the consular access system. India will also propose increase of nationals visiting the other country for pilgrimage and raising the number of shrines to be visited. The Tribune, 4 October 2005 India, Pak heading for Siachen breakthrough Back-channel diplomacy was in full swing as India and Pakistan late tonight appeared to be converging towards having a formal agreement on resolving the Siachen dispute. The final word, however, would come after the visiting External Affairs Minister, Mr K Natwar Singh, calls on Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. Indications given to The Tribune were that the two sides animatedly discussed two issues where they thought their convergences were most likely as of now - Siachen and Sir Creek. The Dawn,4 October 2005 Pakistan, India sign two deals: Missile testing, coastal informationPakistan and India on Monday signed an agreement on pre-notification of flight-testing of ballistic missiles and a memorandum of understanding for the establishment of a communication link between the Pakistan Maritime Security

Agency and the Indian Coast Guards. The accord and memorandum were signed after the 90-minute delegation-level talks between Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri and his Indian counterpart Natwar Singh at the Foreign Office here in the afternoon. The Indian Express, 4 October 2005 India, Pak may melt Siachen ice. India and Pakistan on Tuesday said they were engaged in finding a 'framework' for settling the issues of Siachen and Sir Creek on 'mutually-acceptable' basis as External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh met President Pervez Musharraf.During the 40-minute meeting at the Army house in Rawalpindi, the two leaders also agreed that the Kashmir issue should be continuously addressed in a 'sincere and purposeful manner'. The Hindu, 5 October 2005 Musharraf's assurance on Sarabjit Singh issue Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday said he would take note of the appeals for taking a humanitarian view of the case of Sarabjit Singh of Punjab, who has been sentenced to death here on charges of carrying out bomb blasts in 1990 at the behest of the Research and Analysis Wing. The assurance was given when External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh raised the issue at a meeting with him at Rawalpindi. Mr. Singh urged that "he [Sarabjit] be dealt [with] from a humanitarian point of view," Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said after the meeting. Sarabjit's lawyer Rana Abdul Hamid filed a review petition in the Supreme Court last week. If the court rejects it, the only option before Sarabjit is to send a mercy petition to Gen. Musharraf, who is constitutionally authorised to decide whether or not to pardon him. The Hindu, 5 October 2005 India, Pakistan take a step forward on Siachen India and Pakistan will strive to arrive at a "common understanding" on demilitarisation of the Siachen glacier before the next round of the composite dialogue in January. The latest understanding is to take an "integrated" approach. It involves six identified issues related to the glacier and working towards a common understanding before Siachen is taken up as one of the eight subjects under the third round of the composite dialogue. The six areas are: from where the troops are moving; where they will move to; how to define the areas of disengagement; a regime to monitor the implementation of disengagement; a verification mechanism on dos and don'ts on the glacier and what is to be done about NJ 9842. The Tribune, 5 October 2005 India, Pak take step forward on Sir Creek India and Pakistan failed to achieve a thaw on Siachen issue despite hectic back-room diplomatic efforts that continued well past midnight last night, though the two nuclear neighbours did take a step forward in resolving the Sir Creek maritime boundary dispute. The two issues - Siachen and Sir Creek - had been discussed at length both at the Foreign Minister-level and delegation-level talks yesterday and there was expectancy in the air that External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh might return home after securing a framework agreement on working out modalities for eventual withdrawal of troops from the world's highest battlefield.

The Dawn, 5 October 2005 Baglihar dam report to be binding on both: experts A Swiss expert, mandated by the World Bank to prepare a report on the controversial Baglihar dam in Kashmir, said on Tuesday that his conclusions would be binding on India and Pakistan.Winding up a detailed inspection of the 450-mw Baglihar hydro-electric power project, the head of the World Bankappointed team, Raymond Lafitte, said he had studied the project minutely.He said he would present some preliminary ideas in a report to be made public in New Delhi on Friday. The Dawn, 5 October 2005 PM seeks early end to Kashmir row: Delhi asked to show courage Pakistan on Tuesday expressed satisfaction with the ongoing composite dialogue with India, but also underscored the need of an early solution of Kashmir dispute 'so that both the countries could go ahead in tandem in bilateral free trade and investment.' In his hour-long meeting with visiting Indian External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh at prime minister's house, Mr Aziz said that Pakistan was an open economy, but it would like to enter in free trade and investment with India in tandem with the solution of Kashmir issue, sources privy to the meeting told journalists. The News, 5 October 2005 Indo-Pak group on LG meets next week The joint working group of Pakistan and India would meet next week in New Delhi to share the experiences of local government systems in both the countries.Chairman National Reconstruction Bureau Daniyal Aziz will represent Pakistan and India would be represented by Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources and Panchayati Raj,Mani Shankar Aiyar.The decision to form a joint working group on local government was taken in June this year during a meeting between Chairman NRB Daniyal Aziz and Indian Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources and Panchayati Raj Mani Shankar Aiyar. Daily Times, 5 October 2005 Indo-Pak economic commission revived after 16 years India and Pakistan on Tuesday held a meeting of the Joint Economic Commission for years, marking a further thaw between the South Asian countries.Indian External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh is leading the Indian side at the talks with his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Kasuri, Foreign Office officials said.Reading out a joint statement of the recently concluded Indo-Pak talks later, Kasuri said India and Pakistan had decided to restructure and streamline the work of the Joint Economic Commission in light of developments that had taken place since it last meeting in 1989. The Hindu, 5 October 2005 Musharraf's assurance on Sarabjit Singh issue Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday said he would take note of the appeals for taking a humanitarian view of the case of Sarabjit Singh of Punjab, who has been sentenced to death here on charges of carrying out bomb blasts in 1990 at the behest of the Research and Analysis Wing. The assurance was given when External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh raised the issue at a meeting with him at Rawalpindi. Mr. Singh urged that "he [Sarabjit] be dealt [with] from a humanitarian point of view," Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said after the meeting. Sarabjit's lawyer Rana Abdul Hamid filed a review petition in the Supreme Court last week. If the court rejects it, the only option before Sarabjit is to send a mercy petition to Gen. Musharraf, who is constitutionally authorised to decide

whether or not to pardon him. The Hindu, 5 October 2005 India, Pakistan take a step forward on Siachen India and Pakistan will strive to arrive at a "common understanding" on demilitarisation of the Siachen glacier before the next round of the composite dialogue in January. The latest understanding is to take an "integrated" approach. It involves six identified issues related to the glacier and working towards a common understanding before Siachen is taken up as one of the eight subjects under the third round of the composite dialogue. The six areas are: from where the troops are moving; where they will move to; how to define the areas of disengagement; a regime to monitor the implementation of disengagement; a verification mechanism on dos and don'ts on the glacier and what is to be done about NJ 9842. The Tribune, 5 October 2005 India, Pak take step forward on Sir Creek India and Pakistan failed to achieve a thaw on Siachen issue despite hectic back-room diplomatic efforts that continued well past midnight last night, though the two nuclear neighbours did take a step forward in resolving the Sir Creek maritime boundary dispute. The two issues - Siachen and Sir Creek - had been discussed at length both at the Foreign Minister-level and delegation-level talks yesterday and there was expectancy in the air that External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh might return home after securing a framework agreement on working out modalities for eventual withdrawal of troops from the world's highest battlefield. The Dawn, 5 October 2005 Baglihar dam report to be binding on both: experts A Swiss expert, mandated by the World Bank to prepare a report on the controversial Baglihar dam in Kashmir, said on Tuesday that his conclusions would be binding on India and Pakistan.Winding up a detailed inspection of the 450-mw Baglihar hydro-electric power project, the head of the World Bankappointed team, Raymond Lafitte, said he had studied the project minutely.He said he would present some preliminary ideas in a report to be made public in New Delhi on Friday. The Dawn, 5 October 2005 PM seeks early end to Kashmir row: Delhi asked to show courage Pakistan on Tuesday expressed satisfaction with the ongoing composite dialogue with India, but also underscored the need of an early solution of Kashmir dispute 'so that both the countries could go ahead in tandem in bilateral free trade and investment.' In his hour-long meeting with visiting Indian External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh at prime minister's house, Mr Aziz said that Pakistan was an open economy, but it would like to enter in free trade and investment with India in tandem with the solution of Kashmir issue, sources privy to the meeting told journalists. The News, 5 October 2005 Indo-Pak group on LG meets next week The joint working group of Pakistan and India would meet next week in New Delhi to share the experiences of local government systems in both the countries.Chairman National Reconstruction Bureau Daniyal Aziz will represent Pakistan and India would be represented by Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources and Panchayati Raj,Mani Shankar Aiyar.The decision to form a joint working

group on local government was taken in June this year during a meeting between Chairman NRB Daniyal Aziz and Indian Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources and Panchayati Raj Mani Shankar Aiyar. Daily Times, 5 October 2005 Indo-Pak economic commission revived after 16 years India and Pakistan on Tuesday held a meeting of the Joint Economic Commission for years, marking a further thaw between the South Asian countries.Indian External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh is leading the Indian side at the talks with his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Kasuri, Foreign Office officials said.Reading out a joint statement of the recently concluded Indo-Pak talks later, Kasuri said India and Pakistan had decided to restructure and streamline the work of the Joint Economic Commission in light of developments that had taken place since it last meeting in 1989. The Hindu, 6 October 2005 Natwar for greater economic ties A day after Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Indian investors were not welcome unless the Kashmir issue was resolved, External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh made a strong plea for expanding economic and commercial cooperation between the two countries. Addressing representatives of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry here on Wednesday, Mr. Singh referred to the spurt of economic growth in India and Pakistan and emphasised the need for both sides to mutually benefit from existing complementarities between them. Surveying the whole spectrum of economic areas in which the countries could cooperate, Mr. Singh said India was ready to look at non-tariff barriers within the ambit of the Joint Study Group. The Dawn, 6 October 2005 Natwar hopes consulate to begin work in January Indian External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh on Wednesday had an interaction with government and political leaders, businessmen and intellectuals here before leaving for home concluding his visit to the country.Mr Singh vowed to push forward the peace process with Pakistan and gave a positive signal when he visited the India House and witnessed the repair and renovation work in progress to make the Deputy High Commission operative.Mr Singh met a high-powered delegation of the main opposition Pakistan People's Party led by the party's Senior Vice-Chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim. Mr Fahim and his colleagues said that his party supported the increased people-to-people contact between the two countries and efforts to help the divided families to meet each other.Mr Singh said he was confident that the Indian Deputy High Commission here would become operational in January, by which time Pakistan's Deputy High Commission would also become functional in Mumbai and the overland train route via Khokhrapar-Monabao would open a new channel for people-to-people contact and promotion of trade and commerce. The Asian Age, 6 October 2005 Deal on Siachen eludes India, Pak The publicised "breakthrough"on Siachen evaded both India and Pakistan who have been unable to narrow differences on the territorial claim to the glacier. The same problem has continued to confound both countries for decades, and although it was worded slightly differently during the recent talks in Islamabad, minister of external affairs K. Natwar Singh has admitted in Karachi that there is no deadline for the resolution of this issue.The political signal given to the bureaucrats on the basis of

which the media reported that Siachen was being resolved during the minister's three-day visit was to seriously negotiate a withdrawal of troops. It was clear, however, to the officials sitting across the table that there was no dilution in the Pakistan position and that it was not willing to recognise India's occupation of the Siachen glacier as legal. The Hindu, 6 October 2005 No deadline for Siachen, says Natwar External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh said here on Wednesday that he hoped the India-Pakistan talks on the Siachen issue would move forward. Talking to reporters before leaving for New Delhi at the end of a four-day visit to the country, he said that "there is no deadline for Siachen, but we hope the talks will move forward."A joint statement issued on Tuesday said the two sides exchanged ideas on Siachen and agreed to continue discussions to arrive at an understanding before the next round of the composite dialogue in January. The Tribune, 7 October 2005 Joint control may be solution to Kashmirissue: Hayat Indiaand Pakistanare considering three options, including joint control of Kashmirfor an amicable solution to the issue, PakistanMinister for Kashmir Affairs Faisal Saleh Hayat has said. Besides joint control, the options under consideration are limited sovereignty formula and the devolution system formula, he said in an interview to The News daily.He claimed that the leaders, foreign ministers, foreign secretaries and even officials involved in the backdoor diplomacy have discussed these options, and Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) are being taken into confidence in this regard.Under the joint control formula, Pakistan and India could jointly control the Jammu and Kashmir region while the limited sovereignty formula suggests that Kashmiris would be provided all the financial, local government budget and other powers of a provincial government, while the defence, currency and foreign affairs would be the joint responsibility of the two countries.The third option of devolution system has provision for expansion of the local government system in a way that the Kashmiri people get right to self-determination type powers, he said. Under this option, the currencies of both Pakistanand Indiawould be recognised in Jammu and Kashmir. Daily Times, 7 October 2005 Pakistan wants more trade routes with India The government has invited proposals from traders of Pakistan and India to open new trade routes other than Wagah to give a boost to trade between the two neighbouring countries.A top official said the commerce ministry was waiting for proposals initially from Pakistani traders under which it could consider increasing trade through sea and road links. As per studies carried out only Wagah border is the most feasible route of trade by road,Hamid Yar Haraj, Minister of State for Commerce, told the Daily Times from Islamabad. But we offer the traders of both sides to come up with proposals if they think there are more options to trade regardless of sea or land.He said for trade through sea there was a proposal to initiate Karachi-Mumbai cargo service but it depended on traders of the two sides, who were the real stakeholders The News, 7 October 2005 Make-or-break Baglihar talks in New Delhitoday Pakistan and India are holding crucial meeting on Baglihar dam in New Delhi today (Friday) amid persisting serious differences between the two countries on the design of the dam and no agreement

seems to be in sight about the contentious project.The World Bank (WB) neutral expert Dr Raymond Laffitte will chair the meeting that is taking place after the inspection of the dam site and original model of the dam laying in Roorki near Jammu by the experts of the two countries and the WB neutral expert.

The News, 7 OCTOBER 2005 Pakistan working for Strategic Restraint Regime, UN told Pakistan says it is pursuing a multi-track engagement with India to find a peaceful settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, to work for nuclear and missile restraint, and to rectify conventional imbalance. These efforts were part of Pakistan's concept of a Strategic Restraint Regime (SRR). The Times of India, 8 October 2005 Strong Earthquake Shakes North India. A major earthquake with a magnitude of at least 7.6 struck Pakistan on Saturday and was felt across the Indian subcontinent, shaking people out of their homes and sending them running into the streets. The quake was felt in the Indian, Pakistani and Afghan capitals, but there were no immediate reports of casualties. The US Geological Survey (USGS) highlighted a large earthquake on its Website between Indian and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir with a magnitude of 7.6. It described the quake as "major", saying it took place at 0350 GMT at a depth of 10km (6.2 miles). It was centred 95 km (60 miles) northeast of Islamabadand 125 km (75 miles) northwest of Srinagar. Japanese quake experts put the magnitude at 7.8.

The Dawn, 8 October 2005 Settlement of Baglihar dispute by Jan likely The Baglihar dam dispute between India and Pakistan is likely to end peacefully in January when the World Bank-appointed neutral expert is expected to deliver a formal verdict on the issue, official sources said on Friday.The issue moved into the realm of legal experts and technical advisers representing the involved three sides, India, Pakistan and the World Bank, who will now meet in Geneva on Oct 20 and 21 to start a process of tricky discussions that could last till January, the official sources told Dawn. The Dawn, 8 October 2005 New Delhi links pullout to peace in Valley India has said that there can be no pullout of troops from Jammu and Kashmir unless violence ends there and a similar disengagement in Siachen Glacier can be undertaken only when delineation on the troop positions is carried out. I don’t think there can be a pullout unless violence is stopped,Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee told The Week magazine. Daily Times, 8 October 2005 India refutes options on Kashmir There have been no discussions with Pakistan on changing the status of Jammu and Kashmir, a spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday. Reacting to the remarks of Faisal Saleh Hayat, the Pakistani minister for Kashmir affairs, who said India and Pakistan were considering three options, including joint control of Kashmir for an amicable solution of the issue, the spokesperson said that Jammu and Kashmir would remain an integral part of India. The Hindu, 9 October 2005 Over 300 killed in Jammu and Kashmir; Uri town flattened

Over 300 people were killed and more than 700 injured in Jammu and Kashmirin Saturday's earthquake. More than 2,000 houses were damaged, and thousands became shelter-less in minutes. All parts of the State were jolted but the border districts of Kupwara, Baramulla and Poonch bore the brunt, due to their proximity to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, where the epicentre of the quake lay. The entire Uri town, adjoining Muzaffarabad district of PoK was flattened. Officials of the 15 Corps told The Hindu that more than 120 persons were killed and over 300 injured in the Uri sector of Baramulla district. In the same sector, 20 Army personnel were killed and 37 injured. The Hindustan Times, 9 October 2005 Aftershocks continue to rock India, Pak A series of aftershocks continued to rock parts of Pakistan and India in the early hours on Sunday, a day after a massive earthquake wreaked havoc in the region.A mild tremor shook Shrinagar at around 6:05 A.M.forcing residents to come out of their houses to safety.As rescue and relief efforts picked up momentum in quake-hit areas, a tremor measuring 4.1 on the Richter scale shook Kutch region at 2:18am. The region had suffered large-scale destruction in a monster earthquake in January, 2001.Another quake of 6.0 magnitude shook northern parts of Pakistanat 2:43a.m.

The Tribune, 9 October 2005 Quake rocks subcontinent Amajor earthquake shook cities and villages across the South Asian subcontinent today,wiping out several villages in Pakistan and leading to fears that the death toll could run into thousands.About 400 Pakistani school children were killed in northwestern Pakistan when two schools collapsed.,the police said. Officials said over 1000 people were killed in the worst-hit PakistanOccupied Kashmir,while 700 lost their lives in Islamabadand North western FrontierProvince. The Dawn, 9 October 2005 PM welcomes aid from abroad Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Saturday he would welcome aid from foreign countries after a major earthquake claimed hundreds of lives in the country.Mr Aziz also said Pakistan may cooperate with India for relief work in the worst-hit area, which is near the dividing line between Azad Kashmir and Indian held zone of Kashmir.We have set up the President’s Relief Fund for the earthquake victims and we welcome financial donations for the fund,” the prime minister told the BBC.He said his country would need foreign help to rebuild homes in the worst affected areas, where he said more than half of the houses have been destroyed.It will be very difficult for them to survive” when the winter comes, he added. DailyTimes, 9 October 2005 3000 die as quake causes devastation. Pakistan’s worst-ever earthquake devastated the country on Saturday and killed over 3,000 people, leaving thousands others injured and homeless.Measuring 7.6 on the Richter Scale, the earthquake was centred in the Hindu Kush ranges. The first earthquake hit at 8:51amin the morning, and more than 10 aftershocks were felt until late in the evening.Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, the federal interior minister, confirmed that over1,000 people had died. However, unofficial estimates put the number of dead at over 3,000. Sherpao said that Muzaffarabad, Balakot, Bagh, several cities of NWFP, Lahore, Gurjat, Mandi Bahaudin, Rawalpindiand other parts of the country were hit by the catastrophic jolts of the earthquake.

The News, 9 October 2005 UN sends second aid team quake victims GENEVA: Six more UN experts left Switzerland Sunday for Islamabad to join a humanitarian aid coordination team in regions hit by a massive south Asian earthquake that killed more than 19,000 people, mainly in Pakistan, this weekend.A first team of eight UN workers arrived in Islamabad Saturday to set up humanitarian coordination operations in the Pakistani capital and at its airport as well as in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, said UN spokeswoman Elizabeth Byrs.Three other UN teams based in Islamabad have also sent rapid evaluation missions to the affected areas and the UN has made available 100,000 dollars (82,450 euros) for emergency aid, Byrs said.According to official figures, at least 19,720 people died in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, and more than 42,000 were injured in Saturday's earthquake, which measured 7.6 on the Richter scale.

The Indian Express, 10 October 2005 Lashkar faces quake fury: 'many killed, many trapped' ISLAMABAD: Scores of activists from an Islamist charity linked to a banned Pakistani militant organisation died in the devastating earthquake that struck Pakistan's border with India at the weekend. The militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, was outlawed by Pakistan in January 2002, a month after its fighters were accused of taking part in an attack on the Indian Parliament. A spokesman for Jamat-ud-Dawa, a group drawn from the ranks of Lashkar, said the charity's mosques, hospitals, schools and Islamic seminaries were obliterated in yesterday's earthquake that killed more than 20,000 people. The Indian Express, 10 October 2005 Pak wants India's help: Musharraf ISLAMABAD: Asked whether he would seek help from India in view of the offer by Singh to provide whatever assistance to assist people effected by the quake, Musharraf told CNN "we are looking at it." "It is very kind of him, he sympathised and condoled with the losses we had (suffered). He had offered assistance". "We need to work out what we would like to have from them. You do understand there is a little bit of sensitivity there. But I expressed my gratitude and we will work out whatever we need from them we will certainly ask", he said. Dawn, 10 September 2005 Military factor deters India aid: experts: Relief efforts in Kashmir (Jawed Naqvi) NEW DELHI: Despite high-level conjectures of support Pakistan and India cannot possibly seek aid from each other in the devastated regions of disputed Kashmir because of the heavy military component inherent in such help, Indian officials and analysts claimed on Sunday. "I don't see any possibility ever that Indian army personnel would be allowed into Gilgit or Baltistan for any help in the earthquake," former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan G. Parthasarthy told a TV channel. "Similarly I cannot foresee any permission by India to Pakistan army personnel to provide help in Kupwara or Baramullah," Mr Parthasarthy, a former army official, said. Dawn, 10 September 2005 Huge relief operation in held Kashmir (Izhar Wani) URI: Troops spearheaded rescue and relief efforts on Sunday in quake-hit Indian Kashmir as federal and state leaders toured the devastated region where more than 600 people died. As the air force flew

in aid, doctors and engineers, thousands of soldiers joined forces with local people in a desperate search for loved ones feared trapped under the rubble. "I've come to share your grief," ruling Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi told the crowds in Uri, one of the worst-hit spots. The region is near the Line of Control that divides Kashmir. Some 300 people died in Uri alone out of a provisional death toll in Indian-occupied Kashmir of more than 600 people, according to a state official who declined to be named. Daily Times, 10 October 2005 Quake will boost India-Pakistan peace process: Experts NEW DELHI: The shared tragedy confronting India and Pakistan in disputed Kashmir could pay dividends for the fragile peace process, experts said on Sunday after a massive earthquake left thousands dead there. "It will certainly help in furthering the peace process," former Indian foreign secretary and ambassador to Washington Lalit Mansingh said. Joint relief efforts could boost confidence, Mansingh said, noting that Indian and Pakistani civilians as well as the troops that face off across the Kashmiri border had lost their lives in Saturday's massive quake. "This is a common tragedy. There is nothing political about this. It can help bring people together," Mansingh added. The disaster offeres a "chance for India, Pakistan to rebuild together," said foreign affairs analyst C Raja Mohan. The Hindu, 11 October 2005 Spirit of camaraderie on LoC NEW DELHI: : Engaged in massive rescue efforts in quake-hit Jammu and Kashmir, the Army offered helicopters to Pakistan for relief operations in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The offer was made during the several contacts between senior commanders on both sides. The Pakistan Director of Military Operations said that for the moment the country had an adequate number of helicopters but would approach the Indian Army if assistance was needed, senior army officers here said. This spirit of camaraderie among top officials has percolated to the formations normally ranged against each other on the Line of Control (LoC). They are now coordinating with each other in relief efforts. On a request made by the Indian side, Pakistan agreed to overlook the movement of Indian Army helicopters in the border areas of Uri and Tangdhar for rescuing its troops and civilians. At least 16 Indian jawans are reported missing after their bunkers on the steep hills were dislocated by the tremors. The Indian Express, 11 October 2005 Pak yes to IAF relief trip today NEW DELHI: Setting aside politics, India has decided to send a planeload of relief material to quake-hit Pakistan tomorrow, besides renewing its offer for any sort of assistance. Islamabad later said it had accepted the aid, adding that it was in touch with New Delhi for any additional help. An IL-76 aircraft will carry 25 tonnes of relief material that would include medicines, tents, blankets, plastic sheets and medical equipment. The airlift will wait for Pakistani clearance to fly in. The decision followed a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan High Commissioner Aziz Ahmed Khan, who was invited today by Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran. The PM, who will be flying to the Uri and Tangdhar frontier tomorrow to take stock, conveyed Indian sympathies and told Khan that he was moved by the images of destruction from the earthquake in Pakistan. ''The Prime Minister has directed that a consignment of these items should be put together on a very urgent basis and delivered to Pakistan at the earliest. The concerned agencies are already at work at organising an airlift of these items by tomorrow evening subject to clearances,'' said Saran.

Dawn, 13 October 2005 JC should not dilute composite dialogue ISLAMABAD: Officials have advised the government that the composite dialogue process with India should retain its primacy, and the revival of joint commission should not dilute its importance. Informed sources told Dawn on Monday that the officials held that all out efforts should be made to keep the joint commission and the composite dialogue as stand-alone processes for enhancement of cooperation in various fields particularly in trade between the two countries. A plenary meeting was held recently headed by foreign ministers of the two countries for revival of JC. They said an active approach on the JC could lead to deflation of attention from core issues, the sources said adding it might also result in compromising the integrity of the composite dialogue. Daily Times, 11 October 2005 India again offers help in relief in AJK and NWFP (IFTIKHAR GILANI) NEW DELHI: India once again offered aid to relief operations in the quake hit areas across the LoC in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and the NWFP. Home Secretary VK Duggal told reporters after a meeting at the National Disaster Management Centre that India was ready to provide any help to Pakistan and Azad Kashmir and that the prime minister has already offered to help on humanitarian grounds. He also hoped that the Sriangar-Muzaffarabad road would be repaired by next Thursday. He said that concerned agencies on both sides were in touch with each other and were working to restore traffic on the road and to reconstruct the 'Aman Setu' bridge. The News, 11 October 2005 Pakistan accepts Indian relief offer (MARIANA BAABAR) ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's High Commissioner to New Delhi Aziz Ahmed Khan met Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and indicated that Pakistan would welcome relief goods to help survivors in different parts of the country which have been affected by one of the worst disasters in its history. "Our high commissioner in his meeting with the Indian prime minister updated him about the scale of disaster that Pakistan is facing and the Indian government put forward an open ended offer. We have indicated that we would welcome relief goods," spokesperson at the Foreign Office told The News. Earlier Dr Singh had telephoned President Pervez Musharraf and condoled the deaths of thousands of Pakistanis and offered assistance. Musharraf had told the BBC that he would have to look into the offer as there were "sensitivities" about such an offer from across the border. The Indian Express, 12 October 2005 What India could do Pakistan's minimalist attitude towards the Indian offer of cooperation in providing relief to the people of Jammu and Kashmir is not surprising. While accepting the delivery of some relief material, Islamabad is not ready to risk the presence of Indian troops or other organisations in Pakistan controlled Kashmir. Fully aware of Islamabad's political sensitivities on accepting joint relief operations, India does not want to embarrass Pakistan by publicly persisting with the proposals on substantive assistance. Sceptics would argue that India's own reaction would not have been very different if the brunt of the earthquake was borne by the Indian side of Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan had offered joint relief operations. That the security mindset in Islamabad has prevailed over the imperatives of bolder approaches to cooperation in Kashmir at this tragic moment is no excuse for New Delhi to think small. Given the magnitude of the tragedy and India's own territorial claims over the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, which

has been flattened by the temblor in the Hindu Kush mountains, India needs to explore unilateral approaches in responding to the worst natural disaster in J&K in more than a century. If New Delhi looks beyond the immediate issues of relief and rehabilitation on both sides of J&K, it could come up with imaginative steps that could ameliorate the larger human condition in the entire state. If the seismic faultlines underlying Kashmir region produced the devastating quake, Delhi must now respond with a sincere effort to overcome the political faultlines within J&K. The Tribune, 12 October 2005 Pak nod to IAF relief plane, Kasuri thanks Natwar (RAJEEV SHARMA) NEW DELHI: Pakistan today gave clearance for landing of an Indian Air Force plane which is to carry 25 tonnes of earthquake relief material like tents, plastic sheets, blankets, mattresses, food items and medicines. The Ministry of External Affairs got the green signal from Pakistan this evening. By the time the Pakistani clearance came, the IL-76 aircraft had already been loaded. Defence Secretary Shekhar Dutta personally supervised the loading operations. The IAF transport plane is scheduled to take off for Pakistan shortly before midnight, and land at Islamabad airport at 0045 hours local time on Wednesday. The delay in taking off is in view of extremely busy air traffic at the Islamabad airport which is choc-a-bloc because of earthquake relief operations. Before the formal grant of permission, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Mohammad Kasuri rang up his Indian counterpart, Mr Natwar Singh, in the afternoon and thanked India for providing emergency relief supplies for the quake victims. Mr Natwar Singh informed him that the first consignment of relief material from India would be airlifted from here later in the day. The Tribune, 12 October 2005 Amritsar-Lahore bus service put off CHANDIGARH: Following the massive destruction caused by the earthquake in Pakistan on Saturday, the Amritsar-Lahore bus service, scheduled to start from November 9, stands postponed, sources in the Punjab Government said today. A fresh date for the bus service would be announced after consultations with Pakistan, they said, adding that it could take up to six months for things to normalise. A decision to postpone the bus service and the send-off ceremony has been taken in view of the national calamity in Pakistan where more than 40,000 persons were feared dead. Incidentally, the bus service would run between the Youth Hostel at Amritsar and Gulberg - an upmarket locality in Lahore. The Indian bus was scheduled to go to Pakistan every Tuesday and come back on Wednesday while the Pakistani bus was scheduled to cross over to India on Friday and depart on Saturday, thus providing two connections every week. Dawn, 12 October 2005 Indian forces kill eight Kashmiris SRINAGAR: Indian troops killed eight suspected militants in occupied Kashmir on Tuesday, police said, despite a uniliateral ceasefire called by the rebels while earthquake relief operations are under way. "Security forces today foiled an inflitration bid of terrorists on the (Line of Control), while they were crossing over" from the Pakistan side of the disputed state, a police spokesman said. "During the ensuing exchange of firing, eight terrorists were killed," he said, adding that arms and ammunition were recovered from the dead. The clash took place 140 kilometres north of Srinagar, police said. Dawn, 12 October 2005 Singh: India alive to sensitivities: Aid for victims in AJK (JAWED NAQVI)

NEW DELHI: India was ready to rush potentially life-saving aid to the devastated parts of Azad Kashmir since these were more readily accessible from the Line of Control, but New Delhi was equally alive to Pakistan's sensitivities in not signalling its acceptance, Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh said on Tuesday. "It depends on Pakistan's sensitivities," Press Trust of India said from Srinagar, quoting Dr Singh. "We have to respect them. If they agree to this, there will be positive response from our side," Dr Singh told reporters here after visiting quake-hit areas in Tangdhar and Uri close to the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir. The prime minister said the army chief and director general of military intelligence (DGMI) had made such an offer to Pakistan. Recalling his telephonic conversation with President Gen Pervez Musharraf hours after the quake struck on Saturday, Dr Singh said he had later met Pakistan High Commissioner Aziz Ahmed Khan, who indicated certain immediate requirements which were accepted by India. The Hindu, 13 October 2005 Musharraf thanks Manmohan (B Muralidhar Reddy) ISLAMABAD: In a rare acknowledgement Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf took only the name of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh while thanking world leaders for their offer of assistance to the earthquake victims. In his 45-minute special address on Wednesday to the nation on the magnitude of the earthquake, Gen. Musharraf spoke about the offer of assistance made by Dr. Singh and expressed his gratitude. "We have accepted the Indian offer in certain forms and format," he said without elaborating. Gen. Musharraf conceded that the Pakistan Army and the Government could not provide the kind of rescue and relief expected in the first 48 hours due to inadequate helicopter strength. The Hindu, 13 October 2005 Indians in PoK get helping hand CHAKLALA: Avtar Singh and his family never dreamt they would land up at the Pakistan military base here on Wednesday when they boarded the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus on October 6 with hopes of getting a glimpse of their ancestral home on the outskirts of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Rendered without shelter by Saturday's earthquake, Mr. Singh and four relatives were airlifted by a Pakistan Air Force helicopter. A day after the quake they contacted relatives in Jammu and after intervention by the Indian Government, the Pakistan Army not only managed to locate them but also arrange for their transportation to Islamabad and onwards to India. But the Tandon family, who travelled with the Singh family on the same bus, was not as lucky. The senior Tandon survived with serious injuries, but one of his sons died and the other was injured. The Indian Express, 13 October 2005 Hurriyat for joint Indo-Pak relief operation SRINAGAR: The moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference today asked India and Pakistan to seriously consider mounting joint rescue and relief operation in quake-hit areas on either side along the Jammu and Kashmir border. "India and Pakistan should seriously consider launching joint rescue and relief operation in areas close to the line of control," Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, chairman of the Hurriyat Conference, said here. The joint operation should be launched on humanitarian grounds and could well form a major confidence-building measure which would surely benefit the people, he said. Mirwaiz said Army was yet reach far-flung areas in Uri and Tangdhar which were devastated by the killer quake. Hindustan Times, 13 October 2005

Telegraph criticises Musharraf Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf has been blamed for missing the chance to mend fences with India, in the wake of the recent disaster. A leader in The Telegraph said, it took "a while to jolt General Pervez Musharraf out of accustomed ways of thinking on one of the great political fault lines of our day. " Islamabad's refusal to India's offer on Sunday to put helicopters at the general's disposal "was manifest nonsense. Then it came up with the feeble excuse that there could be no question of joint rescue operations because there was no population on the line of control." However finally it did agree to accept a 25-tonne planeload of relief supplies. The leader says, "The greatest natural disaster in Pakistan's history offered a rare chance to warm the slight thaw in relations with India. By first prevaricating, then accepting only limited help from a neighbour with vast resources, Gen Musharraf has displayed a depressing lack of imagination." Hindustan Times, 13 October 2005 India sends plane with aid for quake victims in PoK ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI: India today joined the international aid efforts for earthquake victims in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) by flying a plane-load of relief material and said it was ready to despatch more consignment at short notice. An Indian cargo plane carrying the first consignment of 25 tonnes of relief supplies landed in Islamabad in the wee hours of today, becoming the first Indian relief aircraft to land here since the 1971 Indo-Pak war. IAF's Ilyushin-76 aircraft, loaded with 15,000 blankets, 50 tents, plastic sheets, mattresses, food items and a variety of medicines and medical supplies landed at the airport in Islamabad at 2:45 AM, Indian embassy sources said in Islamabad. Indian High Commissioner to the country Shiv Shankar Menon and senior Indian diplomats formally received the relief supplies and handed it over to Pakistani officials. Dawn, 13 October 2005 Indian troops cross LoC to back up relief efforts SRINAGAR: Indian soldiers on Wednesday crossed LoC to rebuild a quake-destroyed bunker, an Indian army spokesman said. "It is unprecedented in the manner that our soldiers have gone across the border to extend help," Lieutenant Colonel K. Seghal said in Srinagar. The soldiers crossed a bridge that spans the Line of Control, Col Seghal said. "A few soldiers from the Pakistani side shouted for help to our boys to clear the debris and in adverse weather conditions our soldiers went across to re-do their flattened bunkers so that they could sleep at night," he said. "If they (the Pakistani soldiers) want our help and if we want their help it is no problem," said an Indian army commander as helicopters from the two sides crisscrossed the usually heavily militarised LoC - something that would usually involve being shot down. Dawn, 13 October 2005 Relief from India opens new peace channel (Tripti Lahiri) NEW DELHI: The shared tragedy of last week's earthquake opened new channels between South Asian rivals Pakistan and India, analysts say, as New Delhi delivered aid to Islamabad in the first such airlift in decades. Kashmir, the source of a bitter ownership dispute since 1947 that led to two wars, suddenly became the focus of cooperation with tens of thousands dead after the 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck the region on Saturday. Analysts said that along with a peace process in place since January 2004, the shipment of 26 tonnes of medical and food supplies that arrived in Islamabad from New Delhi on Wednesday is proof that the two nations can put aside the past. "Now the people will physically see with their own eyes that in the time of calamity, the governments are coming together

and the people are coming together," said S.D. Muni, a professor at the centre for regional studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. The Hindu, 14 October 2005 Pakistan denies reports of Indian soldiers crossing LoC (B Muralidhar Reddy) RAWALPINDI: Pakistan on Thursday denied reports that Indian soldiers crossed the Line of Control to help to repair one of its army bunkers in the wake of the October 8 earthquake. The media reports "are fabricated, baseless and untrue," Director-General of Inter-Services Public Relations Shaukat Sultan said. There is "no question" of such a possibility. "Our fighting bunkers are completely intact because their construction is very robust." Maj. Gen. Sultan also refuted media reports expressing concern over the safety of Pakistan's nuclear installations. They were robust and shockproof. An earthquake or even a direct bomb attack cannot cause them any harm. "Such reports are being spread by those who don't have any knowledge about such matters." Commenting on the issue, a diplomat said: "I fail to understand why the Indian side should publicise it even if its soldiers responded to distress calls from the Pakistani side. Obviously, the Pakistanis cannot be expected to confirm such reports even if they were true, particularly when the matter involves their troops. This kind of scoring a point in such a situation is meaningless." The Hindu, 14 October 2005 Troops gave only tools, says Army NEW DELHI: The Army on Thursday denied reports that some of its troops crossed the Line of Control (LoC) to help to rescue Pakistani troops and rebuild their bunker destroyed by the October 8 earthquake. On Wednesday, a Srinagar-based army officer suggested that the troops had responded to a plea for assistance by Pakistani soldiers and crossed the LoC. The Indian Express, 14 October 2005 PM wanted to go to Pak but surgery in way (Shishir Gupta) NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's wrist surgery at AIIMS today put paid to his plans of paying a brief visit to Pakistan and offer condolences for the victims of the earthquake, which has already taken over 25,000 lives, left over 40,000 injured and countless homeless. Sources said that Prime Minister had apparently discussed his Pakistan visit plans with his key advisors but it was nixed due to the numbing pain, caused by carpal tunnel syndrome, in his right hand on Wednesday. The plan was to visit Islamabad for a few hours and offer personal sympathies to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. Keen as the PM was to visit Islamabad, he even wanted to visit a hospital where the temblor victims were being given medical treatment. However, with Prime Minister's right hand being bandaged, there is a strong move for UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to convey India's deep sympathies to the Pakistani people. But plans are still to be firmed up before a final decision. The Indian Express, 14 October 2005 Road across LoC shut till year-end (Muzaffar Raina) SRINAGAR: The Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road will remain closed for at least two months after massive landslides triggered by Saturday's earthquake wiped out a large stretch. ''There has been sinking of road, breaching of formations and extensive damage to permanent structures like retaining walls and culverts. It will take more than two months to restore the road,'' Brig S S Dasaka, Chief Engineer, Project Beacon, Border Roads Organisation (BRO) told The Indian Express. ''It is going to be a very difficult, if not impossible, task,'' he added. Sources said the BRO is undertaking re-construction of the

road on a war-footing after Army received instructions from the Centre to complete it at the earliest. Besides, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has taken up the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. However, a Beacon survey found that the restoration could take more time as the damage caused to the road was huge. ''Besides, the coming winter can play spoilsport. The damage on the Muzaffarabad side is also heavy and it is unclear how long they (Pakistan) will take to make it traffic-worthy,'' the officer said. The Tribune, 14 October 2005 Second consignment to Pak to be sent by train today (Rajeev Sharma) NEW DELHI: The devastating earthquake in Pakistan and parts of India has thrown the upcoming schedule of India-Pakistan talks on several bus services out of gear as both the neighbours are focussing squarely on rescue, relief and rehabilitation works. India is all set to launch the next phase of its quake diplomacy when it sends 82 tonnes of quake relief material to Pakistan tomorrow, this time by train. The second consignment of relief supplies, which includes 5,000 blankets, 370 tents, five tonnes of plastic sheets and 12 tonnes of medicines, will be sent by train from here through the Attari-Wagah route. Initially, the Indian Government thought of sending the relief material by the Delhi-Lahore Samjhauta Express, but by the time the necessary arrangements could be made it was too late. In fact, the Ministry of External Affairs even put up on its website briefing points by the spokesman saying that the second consignment would leave by train tonight. Dawn, 14 October 2005 Reports of Indian troops crossing LoC baseless: ISPR ISLAMABAD: The Inter-Services Public Relations on Thursday termed baseless reports about Indian soldiers crossing the Line of Control to help Pakistani troops in relief and rescue operations. "The Pakistan Army is fully capable of handling the rescue efforts in the earthquake-hit areas," an ISPR spokesman said. He said the report that Indian troops helped their Pakistani counterparts rebuild an army bunker was baseless. AFP adds: The Indian army clarified that its troops crossed the LoC to help Pakistani soldiers clear debris and not to rebuild a bunker. Lt-Gen S.S. Dhillon, commanding Indian troops deployed in occupied Kashmir, said some of his men did cross the LoC but did not want to be drawn into any dispute over detail. Dawn, 14 October 2005 Train route revived for Indian aid (Jawed Naqvi) NEW DELHI: An Indian relief train was due to cross the Wagah-Attari border on Thursday night with a consignment of blankets, medicines and tents for the Azad Kashmir earthquake victims, official sources said. A foreign ministry spokesman confirmed the measure, to be the second Indian relief consignment to Pakistan since a massive earthquake devatstaed Azad Kashmir and frontier regions of Pakistan. "India is sending the second consignment of relief supplies for the people of Pakistan in the wake of the recent earthquake. The supplies total 82 tons which includes 5,000 blankets, 370 tents, 5 tons of plastic sheets and 12 tons of medicines," the spokesman said. The Hindu, 15 October 2005 Exert pressure on Pak, demand Pandits NEW DELHI: Ahead of the visit of Western diplomats to the migrant camps next week, Kashmiri Pandits on Friday asked the US and Britain to "exert effective pressure" on Pakistan to end crossborder terrorism responsible for their 16-year-long miseries. A delegation of All India Kashmiri Samaj

(AIKS), an organisation of the Pandits, told British High Commissioner, Sir Michael Arthur, and a senior US diplomat that the Western powers should have a "more objective perception" about the dangers of Islamic terrorism. "Dismantling of infrastructure of terrorism by Pakistan on its soil and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) is essential for any peace process in Kashmir," the AIKS delegation led by its president, M K Kaw, told Arthur and American diplomat, Howard J Madnick, here. Hindustan Times, 15 October 2005 Pakistan again rejects joint relief work with India ISLAMABAD: Senior Pakistani officials on Friday again rejected a suggestion for joint relief operations with India in quake-hit areas along their frontier in Kashmir, terming it as "improper and wrong". Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, chief minister of India's Jammu and Kashmir state, was among those who had suggested that rescue operations in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir could be more easily mounted from the other side of the Line of Control (LoC). But Pakistan Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said here on Friday: "You should be well aware about the status of the LoC. Pakistan and India have fought wars over Kashmir in the past. "Moreover the people have sensitive sentiments over these matters," he told reporters. Dawn, 15 October 2005 Indian relief train arrives LAHORE: A train carrying blankets, tents and medicines arrived here on Friday night from India. This is the second consignment of relief goods from the country in three days. The Indian side had informed the Pakistan Railways on Friday morning that one wagon carrying tents and blankets would cross Wagah late night. Later, they increased the number to five, said a railways official. But finally four wagons crossed the border carrying 12 tons of medicines, 370 tents and 500 blankets. Railways authorities, which sent an engine to the border, said the wagons would be taken to Rawalpindi at the earliest. Daily Times, 15 October 2005 Pakistan wants to use Indian route to reach remote villages (Iftikhar Gilani) NEW DELHI: Pakistan has formally asked India for access through Jammu and Kashmir to get to remote villages close to the Line of Control in Azad Kashmir. The request is in response to two offers of help made by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. However, India is quiet over Pakistan's request, as the Indian government is not too happy with Islamabad refusing Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopters to rescue Indians stranded in Muzaffarabad. Many remote areas of Azad Kashmir have become inaccessible because last Saturday's earthquake wiped out all road and bridge links and no rescuer was able to reach them even after a week having passed. Sources confirmed on Friday that Pakistan had formally approached India "through the diplomatic channel" for access to the remote areas of Azad Kashmir from the Indian side of the LoC, but there was no word about it at the official briefing of the External Affairs Ministry. Daily Times, 15 October 2005 'India and Pakistan putting politics before relief' SRINAGAR: India and Pakistan are playing politics with earthquake relief and have missed a great opportunity to build closer ties in a time of tragedy, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said on Friday. India's tepid response to the tragedy has also reinforced a sense of alienation among many ordinary Kashmiris living on its side of the divided Himalayan territory, said the All Parties Hurriyat Conference chairman.

"We thought that both countries should have risen beyond politics, but the only thing that we see is them involved in scoring brownie points off each other," said the 34-year-old, who is also the religious leader of Sunni Muslims in Kashmir. "It was an opportunity for India and Pakistan to really bridge the gap to come closer to each other in this hour of crisis," he said. "But I feel that the gap has widened." The Hindu, 16 October 2005 Green signal for Pakistan helicopters NEW DELHI: India said on Saturday that it was willing to permit Pakistani helicopters to fly in the no-fly zone - one km along the Line of Control (LoC) - on a case-by-case basis. "We received a request from Pakistan on October 13 to fly helicopters in the peace-time no-fly zone (one km along the LoC). We are conveying our agreement today [Saturday] to this request provided permission is taken on a caseby-case basis," the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement. "We have seen a news report that India is delaying action on a request by Pakistan [for soldiers] to cross over the LoC so as to have access for [post-earthquake] relief work. It is clarified that we have received no such request from Pakistan," the statement added. A Pakistan High Commission official confirmed late in the evening that the External Affairs Ministry had communicated in writing India's acceptance of the Pakistani request for its helicopters to fly close to the LoC. Hindustan Times, 16 October 2005 'Terror camps behind Pak refusal of intl aid' NEW DELHI: Accusing Pakistan of adopting an ""indifferent attitude towards hapless people of quakeravaged Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, JKLF has said Islamabad "turned down international help in rubble-strewn areas because of fear of exposure" of militant camps there. "One wonders why Indian offer of help was refused, which could have saved hundreds of lives and could also have boosted the confidence between both Governments. Answer to this is simple if we take militant camps into equation," senior JKLF leader Shabir Chaudhury said in a statement from London. Despite all the claims of dismantling militant training camps, he said, the open secret was that they were fully operational with more than 3000 militants from various nationalities. "These camps were located in various parts of PoK and in areas of Balkote and Manshera," he added. Hindustan Times, 16 October 2005 Quake-hit India, Pak miss bus to turn hurt to hope SRINAGAR: The mountains of Kashmir may have buckled, but India and Pakistan do not seem to have budged. South Asia's nuclear rivals had an opportunity to build bridges out of the ruins of this month's devastating earthquake, and boost their sluggish peace process. But analysts and many people in J&K say it already looks like an opportunity missed. "I wish the governments of India and Pakistan had treated this as the extraordinary humanitarian tragedy that it is and come together on its own merit," said Sandeep Waslekar of the Mumbai-based International Centre for Peace Initiatives. "Unfortunately, both sides have not been able to rise beyond politics," he said. "This shows that there are serious problems in the policy apparatus of the two countries." India has sent aid and sympathy to the people of Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir, and even proposed joint relief operations across the frontline -- an offer Pakistan spurned. Dawn, 16 October 2005 Bad construction led to quake tragedy: study SRINAGAR: Poor construction practices in occupied Kashmir contributed to the massive scale of

damage after the earthquake, the Indian-held state's government said on Saturday. "Experts who visited the calamity sites said there were certain important things missing in the construction of the houses that led to the massive damage to property," a government statement said. "Stone masonry walls were without mortar and window areas covered more than one-third of the walls while it ought to have been less," the statement said, citing architectural experts. The Oct 8 tremor flattened or damaged more than 114,000 houses in occupied Kashmir's worst-hit sectors of Uri and Tangdar, near the Line of Control (LoC). Daily Times, 16 October 2005 India allows Pakistani choppers to fly near LoC NEW DELHI: India granted permission to Pakistan on Saturday to fly its helicopters inside one kilometre of the airspace above the LoC to access remote areas affected by the earthquake in Kashmir. India's External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtaj Sarna, however, clarified that permission will be granted on a case-to-case basis. Sarna said that on October 13, Pakistan had requested permission to fly helicopters inside the "peace-time no-fly zone". He said that Pakistan had also requested permission to cross the LoC to obtain access to remote areas. The Hindu, 17 October 2005 Forces foil infiltration bid NEW DELHI: Militants may try to take advantage of the quake relief operations along the Line of Control (LoC) but the security forces were vigilant and alert to foil any such attempts, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said here on Sunday. "Militants have made about five infiltration attempts since the October 8 earthquake, including two on a single day. About 25-29 of them have been killed. Some of them wanted to take advantage of the disturbed situation but our forces were alert," he told reporters here on the sidelines of a defence seminar. "We are alert. It should not pose any serious threat," he said, adding "the security forces deployed along the LoC were vigilant" and their involvement in the relief and rescue operations were in addition to their normal duty. Mr. Mukherjee was responding to questions on whether the engagement of the armed forces in the relief operations was helping the infiltrators. The Hindu, 17 October 2005 'Blanket' permission by New Delhi (B. Muralidhar Reddy) ISLAMABAD: India has given a `blanket' permission to Pakistan to fly its helicopters to fly in the no fly zone - one kilometre along the Line of Control (LoC). This followed a clarification sought by Islamabad on the offer, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said here on Sunday. She said Islamabad wanted to know whether the decision would give enough manoeuvrability to its pilots flying near the LoC to take "spot decisions." On October 8, when earthquake hit most parts of PoK, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and offered assistance. Subsequently, Gen. Musharraf said that while Pakistan was evaluating the Indian offer, it had to keep in mind the "sensitivities" involved. The Indian Express, 17 October 2005 Quake relief work boosting ties with India: Pak WASHINGTON: Pakistan's Prime Minister said on Sunday that cooperation with India on earthquake relief is strengthening relations between the two countries. India has shipped food, tents, blankets and other material to Pakistan, where much of the damage is concentrated, Pakistani Prime Minister

Shaukat Aziz said on CNN's Late Edition. "We welcome their cooperation," he said. The October 8 quake killed an estimated 54,000, relief officials said, and cold and wet conditions were likely to cause deaths among the estimated 2 million left homeless by the disaster. Hindustan Times, 17 October 2005 HM, LeT suffered major losses in Kashmir quake: Army NEW DELHI: Two hardcore militant outfits Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) have suffered major losses in the October 8 killer earthquake in terror camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir but militancy has continued in Jammu and Kashmir with the Army today saying it has killed 29 militants in the last one week. Militant groups like HM have suffered "maximum losses" followed by LeT in camps in areas like Rawalakot in PoK, Director General of Military Operation (DGMO) Lt. Gen. Madan Gopal said at a briefing organised by the Home Ministry on relief and rehabilitation measures being undertaken in quake- hit J and K. Asked if anti-militancy operations of the security forces have suffered because of the quake, he said the forces have been carrying out a "happy balance" of relief operations and, at the same time, not (not) letting their guard down in operations against militants. Tribune, 17 October 2005 Relief to Pakistan hits Customs roadblock (Varinder Walia) WAGAH: Six truck-loads of relief material (56 tonnes), containing blankets, polythene sheets, powder milk and tents, collected by the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) for earthquake victims in Pakistan were delayed for several hours at the Wagah joint check-post despite clear instructions from the Ministry of External Affairs here today. This was the biggest-ever relief material being sent to Pakistan via the land route since Partition. There are confirmed reports that many houses of Hindus and Sikhs have also been destroyed by the earthquake in Pakistan. A Pakistan official, Mr Farhaz, told The Tribune on the telephone that casualities of Hindus and Sikhs were also reported from different parts of the country. Daily Times, 17 October 2005 Sikhs from India arrive with aid LAHORE: A Sikh team from India led by Shromani Gurdawara Perbandik Committee President Prem Jeet Singh Serna reached Lahore with relief goods on Sunday. The delegation has brought 60,000 blankets and tents for earthquake victims. The Gurdawara Perbandik Committee Pakistan led by Mastan Singh has set up camps at Muzafarabad and Batagram, in collaboration with the Evacuee Trust Property Board. Daily Times, 17 October 2005 India to send third quake aid consignment NEW DELHI: India will send its third consignment of relief material for earthquake victims in Pakistan by train on Monday morning, the Foreign Ministry said. In a statement on Sunday, it said that 170 tonnes of relief materials will be sent, including 100 tonnes of fortified biscuits. The rest of the aid comprises medicines, tents and blankets. The first consignment of relief material was sent by air on October 10 and the second by train four days later. The earthquake killed 39,422 people and injured 65,038 others in Pakistan, while 1,300 people died in Indian Kashmir in last Saturday's disaster. Daily Times, 17 October 2005 India on infiltration alert in Kashmir after quake

NEW DELHI: Indian troops are on heightened alert to prevent militants from taking advantage of the chaos in quake-shattered Kashmir and crossing the border in the divided territory, the military said on Sunday. "We have stepped up guard at the Line of Control and nearly 25 militants were killed during infiltration bids in the last 10 days," General JJ Singh was quoted by the Press Trust of India as saying. He said that troops engaged in relief work in the earthquake-devastated areas were keeping an eye out for militants trying to sneak into Indian Kashmir. "Militants have made about five infiltration attempts since the October 8 earthquake, including two in a single day," Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in New Delhi. "Some of them wanted to take advantage of the disturbed situation." The News, 17 October 2005 India on alert against militant infiltration in Kashmir after quake NEW DELHI: Indian troops are on heightened alert to prevent militants from taking advantage of the chaos in quake-shattered held Kashmir and crossing the border, the military said on Sunday. "We have stepped up guard at the Line of Control and killed 25 militants during infiltration bids in the last 10 days," General JJ Singh was quoted by the Press Trust of India as saying. He said troops engaged in relief work in the quake-devastated areas were also looking for militants trying to sneak in. "Militants made five infiltration attempts since the October 8 earthquake and take advantage of the disturbed situation," Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in New Delhi. He held that the next week could see more crossing attempts and added that India was trying to verify the reports that militant hideouts across the LoC had been destroyed in the quake. The News, 17 October 2005 Kashmiri politicians call for LoC opening HELD SRINAGAR: Politicians in both sides of Kashmir on Sunday called for the Line of Control to be opened for relief operations in the earthquake-hit state. "We urge India and Pakistan to throw open the Line of Control so that we can take relief to our affected brethren in the other part of Kashmir," said Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, moderate APHC leader. "The issue should be viewed as a humanitarian one," he said. On Tuesday held Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed urged the federal government to allow direct shipments of earthquake aid collected by local charities to Azad Kashmir. "There are many private organisations who want to send donations across," Sayeed told a news conference. The Hindu, 18 October 2005 Restoration of phone link with PoK sought NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on Monday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to ensure that the telephone link from the State to Muzaffarabad in Pakistanoccupied Kashmir (PoK) was restored soon. The Chief Minister, who spoke to Dr. Singh on the phone, also urged him to pursue with Pakistan his suggestion of joint quake relief operations. He said the Prime Minister was agreeable to the suggestion of providing relief to the affected people across the LoC as it was easier and less time consuming to reach out to the affected areas from this side than from Pakistan. Mr. Sayeed said the first instalment of cash relief for rebuilding their houses would be disbursed from Wednesday. In Srinagar, Mr. Sayeed also appealed to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to positively respond to the Indian suggestion. He said humanitarian assistance would go well with the current atmosphere of amity and friendship.

The Hindu, 18 October 2005 Natwar: India, Pakistan peace people-driven NEW DELHI: Stating that peace between India and Pakistan was increasingly "people-driven," External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh on Monday said there had been a remarkable transformation in the public mood in both countries. This could be witnessed in the outpouring of spontaneous sympathy and sense of solidarity between the peoples in the wake of the recent earthquake. In a message sent at the launch of a new book "Journey to amity: India and Musharraf's Pakistan" written by K.K. Katyal, former Associate Editor and New Delhi Bureau Chief of The Hindu, the Minister said the natural disaster had, in fact, brought "home to us in a most dramatic fashion how lines drawn upon the map mean so little when tragedy strikes.'' He stressed the need to build on this "spirit of humanity and natural affinity" which bound the people of the two countries. The Hindu, 18 October 2005 Not possible to provide helicopters without pilots, says India NEW DELHI: New Delhi has reiterated its willingness to undertake relief work on the Pakistan side of the Line of Control (LoC) as some of the quake-hit villages are more accessible from the Indian side. The External Affairs Ministry spokesman said on Monday night that Pakistan Foreign Secretary Riaz Muhammad Khan called his counterpart Shyam Saran in the evening and conveyed that Islamabad was willing to receive helicopters from India but without Indian pilots and crews. "In his reply, Foreign Secretary Shri Shyam Saran conveyed to his Pakistan counterpart that it would not be possible for India to provide helicopters which are in service with its armed forces without pilots and crews," the spokesman said. "Concerning helicopter sorties being flown by the Pakistani side to points close to the LoC, the Foreign Secretary [Shyam Saran] conveyed that these can be undertaken but information concerning the proposed sorties should be communicated as early as possible to the DGMO on the Indian side," he added. The Indian Express, 18 October 2005 Pak tragedies are helping us: Gujral New Delhi, October 18: The Indian pharmaceutical industry has come forward with offers of "truck loads" of medicines for earthquake victims of Pakistan, a visible sign of bonhomie between the two countries, former Prime Minister I K Gujral said on Monday. "Tragedies are helping us. It is bringing us together," he said referring to India's assistance to Pakistan in the wake of the killer quake. Giving an instance of outpouring of sympathy, he said representatives of the Indian pharmaceutical industry which met him this morning, have expressed their readiness to despatch truck loads to medicine to Pakistan to help them cope with the situation. Dawn, 18 October 2005 India rejects request for choppers without pilots NEW DELHI: India on Monday conveyed its inability to Pakistan to provide its armed forces' helicopters for relief operations in Azad Kashmir without Indian pilots. An Indian foreign ministry spokesman said Pakistan Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammed Khan called his Indian counterpart Shyam Saran conveying Islamabad's willingness to have Indian helicopters but without Indian pilots and crews. "In his reply, Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran conveyed to his Pakistani counterpart that it would not be possible for India to provide helicopters which are in service with its armed forces without pilots and crews," the spokesman was quoted by Press Trust of India as saying. Pakistan says it does not want badly needed helicopters to have Indian pilots to run the relief operations in Azad Kashmir.

Dawn, 18 October 2005 43 trans-Kashmir bus passengers missing SRINAGAR: India said on Monday that it was seeking news on the fate of 43 bus passengers who crossed into Azad Kashmir before last week's massive earthquake. "Three other passengers are accounted for and they are well but there is no news of a total of 43 more," said regional passport officer S.L. Sriramalu. He confirmed reports that one passenger had died in the quake, which killed 54,000 people in Azad Kashmir and another 1,329 in the Indian zone. The passengers were among 52 Indian nationals who crossed into Pakistan on the two most recent fortnightly bus trips to Muzaffarabad. In April, India and Pakistan agreed on the first bus service to link Kashmir in almost 60 years as part of a peace process begun in January 2004. Dawn, 18 October 2005 India sends 3rd consignment NEW DELHI: The third consignment of 182 tonnes of relief supplies comprising blankets, tents, plastic sheets, medicines and fortified biscuits was sent to Pakistan on Monday by train. The relief supplies were to reach Amritsar later in the day and expected to reach Lahore by Tuesday morning, sources said. The consignment consists of 100 tonnes of fortified biscuits, 26 tonnes of blankets, 250 tents, 9.5 tonnes of plastic sheets and ten tonnes of medicines. After the killer earthquake ravaged Pakistan on October 8, New Delhi sent the first lot of 25 tonnes of relief material to Islamabad on October 10 through a military IL-76 transport aircraft. The Hindu, 19 October 2005 Pakistan ready to open LoC for quake relief (B Muralidhar Reddy) ISLAMABAD: In a dramatic announcement Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf proposed on Tuesday night opening of the Line of Control to allow people to assist in reconstruction of the ravaged areas in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). He also said Islamabad could consider with New Delhi's consent opening of routes other than Muzaffarabad-Srinagar. Addressing a news conference at Muzaffarabad, the flattened capital of PoK, Gen. Musharraf said that a decision has already been taken to allow mobile companies from both sides to operate in the earthquake-affected areas. He was responding to a question on the travails of people in the worst-affected areas and the nature of cooperation Pakistan was contemplating with India to reach out to the displaced people. The Hindu, 19 October 2005 India, Pakistan get quake on the IPU agenda NEW DELHI: India and Pakistan on Monday joined hands and succeeding in getting included the recent earthquake as an emergency item on the agenda of the ongoing 113th Inter Parliamentary Union Assembly in Geneva. Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, leading the Indian delegation, argued passionately for its inclusion in the agenda so that a discussion on the role of parliamentarians in facilitating disaster prevention measures, capacity building for early warning systems and, effective rehabilitation of the affectedlace. India, along with Pakistan and Mexico - who submitted similar proposals - pushed for the emergency item on similar subjects. The Hindu, 19 October 2005 India hails Musharraf's offer (Amit Baruah) NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday welcomed in principle the offer made by Pakistan President Pervez

Musharraf that people could be allowed to cross the Line of Control (LoC) to meet their relatives and assist with reconstruction in the quake-hit areas. However, External Affairs Ministry officials said the details would have to be worked out. "We have seen news reports about President Musharraf's remarks. If these news reports are correct, we welcome the offer that has been made. This is in line with India's advocacy of greater movement across the LoC for relief work and closer people-to-people contacts," the Ministry said. The Hindu, 19 October 2005 Baglihar: the points at issue (Ramaswamy R Iyer) Raymond Lafitte, the Neutral Expert to whom the differences between India and Pakistan over the Baglihar Project stand referred, recently made a site-visit. This has once again brought the issue into prominence. Baglihar is a "run of the river" hydro-electric project on the Chenab, one of the three western rivers allocated to Pakistan under the Indus Waters Treaty 1960. The Treaty lays down certain parameters and conditions to which such projects must conform: (i) no Indian storage on the western rivers (except to a limited extent); (ii) design of project not to be such as to enable the water level to be raised above the Full Pondage Level; (iii) the "pondage" not to exceed twice the pondage required for "firm power"; (iv) if gated spillways are considered necessary, the gates to be located at the highest level consistent with sound and economical design and satisfactory construction and operation; (v) the water intake for the power plant to be similarly located at a high level; and (vi) no outlets below the dead storage level, unless certain technical considerations necessitate this. Hindustan Times, 19 October 2005 Pakistan team to attend Baglihar talks in Geneva ISLAMABAD: An eight-member Pakistani delegation on Tuesday left for Geneva for talks on the disputed Baglihar dam, which India is constructing in its Jammu and Kashmir state. The two-day talks, beginning on Wednesday, will be attended by Raymond Lafitte, the World Bank-appointed neutral expert on the issue, Online news agency reported. Lafitte had recently concluded his inspection of the 450 MW Baglihar hydroelectric power project being constructed by India on the Chenab river in Doda district. The Pakistani delegation comprises Ashfaq Ahmed, secretary water and power, Barrister Makhdoom Ali, the attorney general of Pakistan, Jamaat Ali Shah, commissioner Indus Water, and three other officials. Times Of India, 19 October 2005 India-Pak work out Kashmir opening amid aftershocks MUZAFFARABAD: Pakistan and India wrestled with the details of a historic opening of the Kashmir frontier on Wednesday as a series of aftershocks traumatized survivors 11 days after a devastating quake. The United Nations said the fresh tremors were spreading fear among more than three million people left homeless and dependent on international aid by the October 8 quake, as well as causing dangerous landslides. In Pakistan where more than 41,000 died in the country's worst natural disaster a 5.8 magnitude shock was felt in the capital Islamabad and other northern cities at 7:34 am, the seismological department said. Less than an hour later a 5.4 magnitude tremor rumbled through. The military in Muzaffarabad, the razed capital of Pakistani Kashmir, warned that the fresh aftershocks could cause buildings damaged by the original earthquake to collapse. Dawn, 19 October 2005 Pakistan ready to open LoC for Kashmiris: India accepts Musharraf's offer

MUZAFFARABAD: President Gen Pervez Musharraf said here on Tuesday that Pakistan was ready to open the ceasefire line dividing Kashmir to allow the people from across the Line of Control to come and join aid efforts in the quake-hit region. India promptly welcomed the offer and said it was ready to facilitate such movements. President Musharraf, who was talking to media personnel during his visit to the quake-devastated AJK capital, said: "We will allow any amount of people coming across the LoC to meet their relatives and assist with the reconstruction effort." He also proposed that the political leaders of both sides should interact to "assist each other with the reconstruction efforts". "No formal proposal has been made to New Delhi. It is being put across through you," Gen Musharraf said, referring to the media. Daily Times, 19 October 2005 India provides telephonic link to Kashmiris (Iftikhar Gilani) NEW DELHI: India has set up four telecom centres in Held Kashmir to assist divided families across the LoC to contact their kins in the wake of the October 8 earthquake. The centres expected to be operational by Wednesday (today) will be set up in Srinagar, Jammu, Uri and Tangdhar, External Affairs Ministry Spokesman Navtej Sarna told reporters on Tuesday. These centres will allow people in Held Kashmir, who have relatives in AJK, to contact them on telephone free of charge for the next fortnight, Sarna said. This facility is being provided as a special case on the directions of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In Srinagar and Jammu, the centres will be set up near police control room while in Uri and Tangdhar, they will be located adjacent to the police outpost. Telecommunication links with Pakistan and AJK are already available in Held Kashmir. The News, 19 October 2005 India asked to allow foreign relief agencies in held Kashmir ISLAMABAD: The Special Committee of Parliament on Kashmir on Tuesday appealed to India to allow international organisations to carry out relief operations in the held Kashmir. The meeting was presided over by chairman of the committee Chaudhry Hamid Nasir Chattha. Chairman Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front Yasin Malik also attended the meeting on special invitation. The meeting decided that a parliamentary delegation along with relief goods should visit the occupied Kashmir to express solidarity with Kashmiris across the Line of Control. It was also decided that a parliamentary delegation would also visit Azad Jammu and Kashmir to see the relief works. The Hindu, 20 October 2005 Phone link with PoK established JAMMU: History was scripted in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday after telephone calls were made to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK) for the first time in 15 years. The facility was provided on the orders of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited installed toll-free ISD (International Subscriber Dialling) telephones in the Disaster Management Control Rooms in Jammu, Srinagar, Tangdhar and Uri to facilitate divided families to enquire about the welfare of relatives across the border. Mukhtar Ahmed, a resident of the city, made the first call at 11.35 a.m. to his cousin, Farid, in the quake-hit Muzaffarabad, capital of PoK. He broke down when he was told that 12 of his relatives died in the quake. The dead included his uncle, Abdul Rehman Joo, whom he had never met. "I do not know how to pass this information to my father, who is 75. We were eagerly waiting as he was supposed to come here and meet my father after 57 years. They had not met for over five decades," Ahmed said.

The Hindu, 20 October 2005 No question of opening up entire LoC: Army NEW DELHI: Reacting to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's announcement, the Government on Wednesday said it would wait for the "actual details" of the proposal. "There is no question of the entire LoC being opened up for relief operations. Certain routes can be opened. Let the details be analysed by the Ministry of External Affairs. We will also have to look at the security concerns. The security situation is totally under control, and there will be no let-up in our vigil," Lt. General Madan Gopal, Director-General of Military Operations, told reporters here. Brushing aside apprehensions that the opening of the LoC would provide newer channels for Pakistan-based militants to cross over into Jammu and Kashmir, he said though there were a few incidents of violence, the basic aim was to provide succour to the quake-affected people in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. "Only a few routes will be opened, which will be sufficient for sending help to the victims. There is no problem if the right people come through the LoC. There is a humanitarian angle to it; we can surely work out a method," D.K. Sankaran, Secretary (Border Management) in the Union Home Ministry, who is coordinating relief operations in Jammu and Kashmir, said at a press briefing. The Hindu, 20 October 2005 Telecom links already exist: India NEW DELHI: India stated that telecommunication links across the Line of Control already existed after Pakistan formally proposed on Wednesday that cross-LoC mobile phone linkages be established. On Tuesday, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said during a press conference in Muzaffarabad that mobile phone links could be established across the LoC in the wake of the earthquake. "We had received a note verbale [diplomatic communication] from Pakistan wanting to establish mobile telephone linkages across the LoC. We have conveyed that communication linkages already exist through international satellite and sea cable networks. "If Pakistan would like to establish direct optical fibre communication this could be best done at Attari-Wagah where the optical fibres of both countries are nearest," the External Affairs Ministry spokesman said in a statement. The Indian Express, 20 October 2005 Kashmiris yes, Indians no: Musharraf ISLAMABAD: A day after Pakistan offered to open the Line of Control to allow relief material to be brought into its quake-affected areas, President Pervez Musharraf today said the permission was not "free for all." Elaborating on his remarks made yesterday on opening of the LoC, Musharraf told reporters in Batagram in North West Frontier Province that he would allow the reconstruction and relief material to come but the methodology has to be formalised. "We will allow the relief goods. Yes I will allow Kashmiris. But we have to formalise the methodology. I mean it cannot be free for all. But we have to formalise the methodology but we would like to encourage it," he said. The Indian Express, 20 October 2005 Delhi readies 5 meeting points on LoC NEW DELHI: With Islamabad expected to move a formal proposal soon on allowing Kashmiris to cross the Line of Control to meet relatives or help in relief work, New Delhi has done some groundwork and is now looking to take forward its own proposal of five meeting points for divided families along the LoC. The five points-Poonch, Rajouri, Suchetgarh, Uri and Tangdhar-were suggested by India but are yet to take off. Pakistan has been mulling over this proposal and, of late, has shown an inclination to consider it positively. India is also open to have an additional meeting point in the Kargil sector.

The Tribune, 20 October 2005 Indian relief goods reach Pakistan LAHORE: Noted human rights activist Nirmala Desh Pande and members of Parliament AR Shaheen and Hannan Mollah arrived in Pakistan along with relief material for the victims of the devastating October 8 earthquake. They were received at the Wagah border by Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign's central president Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmed and other activists yesterday, the Daily Times reported. Addressing a news conference at the Lahore Press Club, the MPs expressed solidarity with the people of Pakistan and said, "Indians and Pakistanis were together in facing this terrible calamity." They urged the governments of the two countries to relax visa norms and allow Indians access to the affected areas so that they could help with relief efforts. Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmed underlined the need for coordinated rescue and relief operations. He thanked the Indian community and the delegates for their generosity in helping Pakistanis in their time of need. The delegation is on a two-day visit to help with relief operations. Dawn, 20 October 2005 Talks on opening LoC started with India: Aziz ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and India have started discussing modalities to open the Line of Control (LoC) so that Kashmiris can meet their quake-hit relatives and join relief activities across the divide. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz disclosed this while talking to journalists here on Wednesday. President General Pervez Musharraf had declared on Tuesday that Pakistan was ready to open the LoC. The prime minister said that the decision made by Pakistan and welcomed by India would enable Kashmiris on both sides of the divide to share their sorrow and help each other. In reply to a question, Mr Aziz called for a solution to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the aspirations of Kashmiris. He stressed the need for trilateral talks in this regard, saying Kashmiris were a basic party to the issue. He reiterated that Pakistan would never budge from its principled stand on Kashmir and hoped that invaluable sacrifices rendered by Kashmiris would not go in vain. Dawn, 20 October 2005 Formal proposal on LoC to be made soon: FO (Qudssia Akhlaque) ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will shortly make a formal proposal to India on opening the Line of Control (LoC) to facilitate movement of Kashmiri people on both sides of the divide in the aftermath of the earthquake, Foreign Office said on Wednesday. The move follows India's positive response to President Gen Pervez Musharraf's announcement on Tuesday that Pakistan was ready to open LoC to allow Kashmiris from the other side to come and join their relatives in this hour of tragedy. "Currently internal discussions are taking place. We hope to contact the government of India shortly," Foreign Office Spokesperson Tasnim Aslam told Dawn on Wednesday. The proposal would be made through diplomatic channels. The News, 20 October 2005 'US doesn't want to mediate over Kashmir' NEW YORK: The United States is encouraged by a nascent rapprochement between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan but does not wish to mediate, especially over Kashmir, a senior US official said on Tuesday. "Kashmir is so sensitive in the relations between India and Pakistan that I think it is best left to the Indians and Pakistanis to work on together," said Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs. "I think both governments desire it to be so and, obviously, we wish them well," he said

in a question-and-answer session after speaking on US policy toward India in his speech at the New York-based Asia Society. Burns was responding to a question whether Washington could play any role in the Kashmir issue, especially amid its warming ties with India. Burns said, "We have been encouraged to see the nascent rapprochement between India and Pakistan and if there is a way for the United States and other countries to be helpful, we would be helpful. The Hinsu, 21 October 2005 India yet to receive Pakistan proposal (Amit Baruah) NEW DELHI: India has not yet received a formal proposal from Pakistan on Kashmiris crossing the Line of Control (LoC) to participate in reconstruction efforts in the quake-hit areas, top South Block officials told this correspondent. The officials said there was nothing to "react to", as India was still awaiting the proposal made by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in Muzaffarabad. They pointed out that India, on Wednesday, responded to the Pakistani proposal for a phone link by saying that telecommunication links were already in existence. The officials admitted that the killing of the Jammu and Kashmir Minister, Ghulam Nabi Lone, vitiated the atmosphere but India was still willing to respond positively to any suggestion coming from Islamabad. The Indian Express, 21 October 2005 LoC opening may solve Kashmir: Pak (K J M Varma) ISLAMABAD: The proposal to allow people from both sides of the Line of Control to take part in reconstruction work in the quake-hit areas of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, ''may facilitate progress towards resolution of the decades-old Kashmir issue,'' President Pervez Musharraf today said. In an interview to CNN, Musharraf said: ''May be yes, if the people come into the act, let people generate some kind of solutions for themselves,'' he said. Asked about some of the extremist organisations' participation in relief activities, Musharraf said Pakistan has banned a number of terrorist organizations while it is keeping some under watch. The government knows some of the organizations are active in some areas but stated that they are not the ones which have been banned, he said. Dawn, 21 October 2005 Joint operation with India ruled out ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has ruled out a joint relief operation with India in Kashmir as proposed by Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. "This would be tantamount to rubbing salt into the wounds of the people of Kashmir" Chief Relief Commissioner Maj-Gen Farooq Ahmad Khan said, pointing to the heavy presence of Indian forces in the occupied Kashmir and actions of the occupation troops. Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, he regretted that India had rejected the positive proposal of opening the Line of Control (LoC) to facilitate meetings of between the divided families. Maj-Gen Farooq Ahmed said over 49,000 people had so far been reported killed and 74,000 injured in the tragedy. Daily Times, 21 October 2005 Pakistan will not accept subservience to India WASHINGTON: Pakistan will not seek parity with India but do its utmost to balance and retain initiative by seeking external alliances with outside powers without sacrificing its regional objectives, according to a defence expert. Feroz Hassan Khan, a retired brigadier of the Pakistan army, now at the Centre for Contemporary Conflict at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, writes in Strategic Insights, a monthly journal produced by the Centre, that Pakistan will be cognizant of "emerging India"

in partnership with the United States, but will never assume that this rise will be benign. The most rational path that might be suggested for Pakistan is to accept this reality, give up its claims, and "bandwagon" with emerging India. But realism and strategic culture predict that Pakistan will never accept hegemony. Pakistanis will work night and day to develop responses and countervailing strategies to ensure that India has a high cost to pay for any adventure. This, Brig Hassan argues, was "ingrained in Pakistan's military since the very onset of Pakistan" when its founder Quaid-e-Azam Muhmmad Ali Jinnah declared, "Pakistan has been created and its security and defence is now your responsibility. I want them to be the best soldiers in the world, so that no one can cast an evil eye on Pakistan, and if he does we shall fight him to the end until either he throws us into Arabian Sea or we drown (them) in the Indian Ocean." Daily Times, 21 October 2005 India refusing to open LoC: Gen Farooq (Zulfiqar Ghuman) ISLAMABAD: India has rejected President Pervez Musharraf's proposal that the Line of Control be opened to allow Kashmiris to meet and help their relatives on either side, Federal Relief Commissioner Major General Farooq Ahmed Khan said in his daily briefing on Thursday. "It is regretted that India has rejected the offer," Khan said. He did not know why India rejected the offer, but accused it of "playing politics" at this time of tragedy. "Kashmiris have already had enough and we should not play with their sensitivities," he said. About the possibility of joint relief operations with the Indian Army, he said the government could not engage an army that was responsible for the miseries of the people in Kashmir. "It would be rubbing salt in their wounds. We can do the relief operation on our own. We have enough manpower and strength," he said. The News, 21 October 2005 India refuses to open entire LoC NEW DELHI: India said on Thursday that it was still waiting for Pakistani proposals on how to allow Kashmiris to cross the Line of Control (LoC) in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake. The foreign ministry has asked Islamabad for concrete details of the plan and Indian officials say they are still waiting for a response. "We are still waiting for operationalisation details," a foreign ministry official said. Indian media reported that the government would not act until Pakistan set out how the crossings would actually happen. Neither the Indian high commissioner in Islamabad nor his counterpart in New Delhi has been in touch with the foreign ministries in their host nations, the Hindustan Times said. India's director-general of military operations, Lt-Gen Madan Gopal made it clear that New Delhi was in no hurry. "Let the details be analysed by the Ministry of External Affairs. We will also have to look at the security concerns... there will be no let up in our vigil," he told reporters. "There is no question of the entire LoC being opened up for relief operations. Certain routes can be opened up for relief operations." The Hindu, 22 October 2005 Let's make LoC irrelevant, says Musharraf (B Muralidhar Reddy) ISLAMABAD: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said that the October 8 earthquake is a "lifetime opportunity" to resolve the Kashmir "dispute." In an interview here to the BBC, Gen. Musharraf maintained that it was necessary to identify exactly "what is Kashmir,' then demilitarise the identified region, take all the soldiers out and then give self-government to the people in the region. "I have always believed there is an opportunity of a lifetime to solve the dispute. Now the disaster has struck, I think we should give it deeper thought and resolve the dispute once and for all," he said in response to

a question on the future of Kashmir. Asked about his proposal to throw open the Line of Control (LoC), Gen. Musharraf said, "I believe moving forward is in political terms... let's make the Line of Control irrelevant. Let's open it out, let people come on our side or our people come on their side to help in reconstruction." The Hindu, 22 October 2005 Army submits proposals on Pakistan offer NEW DELHI: The Army was ready to implement any decision of the Government on Pakistan's offer of free movement of Kasmiris across the Line of Control (LoC) for earthquake relief, Chief of the Army Staff J.J. Singh told the media on Friday. "The Army has given its recommendations to the Government, and based on the response from the other side we are ready to implement whatever the Government decides," he said, when asked whether the opening up of the LoC was militarily feasible. He did not elaborate on the Army's proposals. On Siachen, he said some sort of acceptance of present [troop] positions was essential for the next step [of creating a demilitarised zone]. "There should be some sort of documented acceptance of present positions in whatever form. If there is an understanding of this requirement by the other side, progress can be made." The Hindu, 22 October 2005 Pranab: Line of Control cannot be opened for everybody NEW DELHI: Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said that Pakistan's suggestion to open the Line of Control (LoC) cannot be done for "anybody and everybody. Places could be identified from where relief material for the earthquake victims could be moved freely. "If it [Islamabad's proposal] covers those carrying relief material, they can go without obstacles ... Places could be identified for them. But it [LoC] cannot be opened for anybody and everybody," he told BBC's `Asia Today' programme on Friday. It was imperative that India and Pakistan put the past behind and moved forward. "Earthquake cannot alter the history of last 50 years and I am putting it very candidly. But it can provide an opportunity by creating an atmosphere where we can provide assistance to the victims and surely, in that condition, better understanding [between India and Pakistan] is possible," he said. The Tribune, 22 October 2005 Army for recognition of ground position in Siachen NEW DELHI: As India and Pakistan are trying to work out a diplomatic solution to the Siachen Glacier, Chief of Army Staff General J.J. Singh today said that New Delhi had conveyed to Islamabad that ''some form of acceptance and verification of the existing ground position was essential, before any withdrawal could take place''. ''We have to have some kind of documented proof of the positions the two sides held as a prelude to any solution'', General Singh said while briefing media about the just concluded top army commanders conference here. The Army Chief said that the focus of the almost week-long deliberations had been on taking stock of the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and NorthEast and modernisation drive. He said his force proposed to spend Rs 1,900 crore on the armamentacquisition programme this year with the arms proposed to be procured including new artillery and air defence guns, more surveillance equipment and upgradation of the army aviation wing. Dawn, 22 October 2005 'India not allowing families to cross LoC' ISLAMABAD: Chief Relief Commissioner Maj-Gen Farooq Khan has observed that India should not wait for a formal proposal from Pakistan on opening the Line of Control (LoC). "Long parleys on

modalities to open the LoC means the window is closing," he told a press conference here on Friday. He said that as chief relief commissioner he was concerned that India had not still allowed the divided families to get together and share their sorrow as time was running out. He said that since the announcement of LoC opening, India had not allowed a single family to meet their relatives on the other side. When an Indian journalist pointed out that the offer made by President Musharraf had been welcomed by New Delhi, he said: "Welcoming it is one aspect and putting it into practical shape is something else". Daily Times, 22 October 2005 Stable neighbours in India's interest, says Manmohan Singh (Iftikhar Gilani) NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has told Indian military commanders to mould themselves as instruments of peace. Addressing the Combined Commanders' Conference on Friday, Manmohan outlined a new security strategy based on open societies and open economies in South Asia. "I do believe it is in our national security to ensure that our neighbours evolve as viable states with moderate and stable political and social environments and robust economies. There is a role for diplomacy and for civil society in influencing this process. South Asia must be home to open societies and open economies," he told the military brass. Manmohan also asked the security establishment to abandon past rigidities. "Political pluralism and moderation can stabilise our security environment," he told senior army, navy and air force commanders. Daily Times, 22 October 2005 Opening the LoC: Formal papers to be given to India soon: FO ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is staying with President Pervez Musharraf's proposal to allow Kashmiris' to move across the Line of Control and a formal document will soon be presented to India, Foreign Office spokeswoman Taslim Aslam told a private news channel on Friday. Ms Aslam said that India had not yet responded to the president's proposal. She said that Pakistan had formally proposed to India for the extension mobile telephone facilities to civilians in Jammu and Kashmir. She said that Indian feedback showed that there was no need for such a facility in the presence of satellite phone service, adding that nothing formally had so far been conveyed by India on this topic. Meanwhile, Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said New Delhi had not received any proposal from Islamabad on Musharraf's offer of free movement across the LoC and "action can only be initiated after a formal proposal". The News, 22 October 2005 LoC crossing: India receives draft proposal ISLAMABAD: India has received through the backchannel diplomacy involving Tariq Aziz and S K Lambah a rough draft of Pakistan's proposal to allow any number of people coming across the Line of Control to meet their relatives and assist in reconstruction. President Pervez Musharraf had made the proposal this week and India had welcomed it saying that it was awaiting a formal proposal. While not giving details of the meetings between Aziz and Lambah, sources in New Delhi and Islamabad say that informal contacts and homework was necessary before Islamabad sent the proposal formally. In an interview with BBC, Musharraf has indicated that they have made India aware of Pakistan's proposal. When The News sought comments on the issue, the Foreign Office spokeswoman said, "I can only clarify tomorrow whether Pakistan has sent specific proposals to India or not." The Hindu, 23 October 2005

Pak., India plan opening of disputed Kashmir border for quake victims MUZAFFARABAD: Pakistan and India were making plans on Sunday to allow earthquake victims to cross the disputed Kashmir border, bringing the nuclear-armed rivals closer in the wake of a shared tragedy that killed nearly 80,000 people both sides of the heavily militarized frontier. Pakistan proposed on Saturday creating five border crossing points for Kashmiris to freely carry relief goods to either side. India earlier offered to open aid camps for earthquake victims on its side of divided Himalayan region, where the South Asian nations have fought two of their three wars. "It appears to us that the proposals made by Pakistan can be reconciled with those that we ourselves had already made,"Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna, said in a statement in New Delhi. Any agreement to let Kashmiris to cross the frontier - long regarded as one of world's most dangerous flashpoints - would be a clear sign of mounting trust between the longtime rivals who began a peace process nearly two years ago to bury five decades of hostility. The Hindu, 23 October 2005 India offers to open three relief centres (Amit Baruah) NEW DELHI: New Delhi has informed Islamabad of its proposal to open three relief and medical centres on Indian territory to help earthquake victims living across the Line of Control (LoC), the External Affairs Ministry spokesman said on Saturday. Quake-hit persons can cross over to the Indian side during daytime. After getting Islamabad's green signal, India will open the relief centres or camps near the Kaman post close to Aman Setu (Uri sector), Tithwal (Tangdhar) and Chakandabagh (Poonch). These are expected to be operational by October 25. Indians would be free to go to the camps to meet their relatives from the other side of the LoC, the spokesman said at his briefing here. India would arrange for accommodation for residents from the Pakistani side of the LoC so that they could stay overnight. The Hindu, 23 October 2005 Pakistan proposes 5 crossing points NEW DELHI: India on Saturday night said Pakistan's proposal to open five crossing points on the Line of Control for speedy delivery of aid to earthquake victims could be reconciled with New Delhi's suggestion to set up three relief centres near the LoC. Confirming that Pakistan's formal proposals were received, the External Affair Ministry spokesman said these would be examined quickly. As suggested by Pakistan, India was ready to discuss with its Foreign Office the modalities of setting up the centres. In the mean time, India was prepared to despatch relief materials and supplies to the affected areas across the LoC through the three designated points it proposed earlier in the day. The Tribune, 23 October 2005 Tighten leash on Pak, India tells US NEW DELHI: The US Under Secretary for Political Affairs today had two rounds of substantive talks for six hours with Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran where the two sides discussed Asian Security, but the Americans did not come up with any list of do's and don'ts on Iran and the proposed Iran-PakistanIndia gas pipeline did not even come up for discussion. Pakistan figured prominently in today's brainstorming between the two sides and accounted for a large portion of the points of divergences between India and the US. The two familiar areas of Pakistan-specific divergences between the two sides were the upcoming delivery of American F-16 warplanes to Pakistan and the unabated terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir despite the October 8 massive earthquake in the region.

Dawn, 23 October 2005 Islamabad, Delhi to reopen LoC (Jawed Naqvi) NEW DELHI: India and Pakistan agreed on Saturday to open at least three sectors along the Line of Control (LoC) for aid to reach the victims of the October 8 earthquake in divided Jammu and Kashmir, it was officially announced. An Indian foreign ministry spokesman said Pakistan had given New Delhi a proposal for five crossing points along the LoC to facilitate relief and rehabilitation work in the quake-hit areas. "We will be examining these proposals carefully and expeditiously…The proposals made by Pakistan can be reconciled with those that we had already made,"the spokesman said. Daily Times, 23 October 2005 India may allow Pakistani investment (Iftikhar Gilani) NEW DELHI: The Indian government is expected to allow Pakistani businessmen to invest in India and start joint ventures, sources in the Prime Minister's Office said on Saturday. Sources said that signs for greater economic cooperation between the two countries were favourable, considering that both countries had recently allowed each other's banks access to their markets. They said that even if Pakistani businessmen were allowed to invest in the Indian market, they would still be prohibited from purchasing property in India, a restriction applicable to all foreign businesses in India. Sources said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wants a "proactive"policy on the promotion of economic relations with Pakistan, which extends to the promotion of "people-to-people bilateral deals", including setting up factories in each other's territories. The News, 23 October 2005 Pakistan throws ball in India's court ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Saturday announced that it has handed over a formal proposal to India for allowing Kashmiris living on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) to help each other in relief and reconstruction efforts. The announcement was first made by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and later in greater detail by the Foreign Office. The thrust of the proposal, said Shaukat Aziz, "was the identification of five points for two-way movement of Kashmiris across the LoC". However, he did not identify these five crossing points. President Pervez Musharraf had made the proposal on October 18 in Muzaffarabad. Shaukat said through these points relief goods from Pakistan could also go to held Kashmir and, similarly, relief goods from there could come to Azad Kashmir. He hoped that the Indian government would consider these proposals. The Indian Express, 24 October 2005 India, Pak focus on politics, not quake New Delhi, October 24: The earthquake in northern Pakistan killed tens of thousands of people but it could have been the perfect opportunity for India and Pakistan to cast aside decades of rivalry and come together to help the survivors. More than a million people are homeless in Pakistan and tens of thousands in India after the Oct. 8 earthquake smashed houses, buildings and schools across the mountainous region. At least 53,000 people died in Pakistan and about 1,300 in Kashmir. Roads are blocked by landslides, making it difficult for international aid to be taken up to the survivors. Temperatures are below freezing and a hard winter is about to set in, but the two countries, who could do much to help each other, are mired in the same suspiciousness and one-upmanship which has marked their ties since independence in 1947. Daily Times, 24 October 2005

India pursuing anti Muslim policies: Qazi LAHORE: New Delhi's ban on international aid for quake victims in Kashmir shows that India pursues anti Muslim polices, said Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed on Sunday. Qazi expressed grief over the loss of life and property in Kashmir and said that India's cold attitude towards victims in Held Kashmir negated its claims about Kashmir being an integral part of India. He said that New Delhi was making Kashmiris suffer because of their sentimental attachment to Pakistan. The JI chief appealed to people to help Kashmiris and said that people should donate to the Al-Khidmat Foundation to assist victims in Kashmir. He also expressed grief over former Turkish prime minister Necmutin Erbekan's wife's death. Regarding the president's comment about JI's popularity, he said that President General Pervez Musharraf was using his 'rigged victory' in the local council elections to increase his popularity. The Hindu, 24 October 2005 Pak. students overwhelmed by India visit NEW DELHI: "I loved India, its people, the way they treated us and I will definitely convey this to my friends back home in Lahore," said a teenaged Mohd Wajahat Faizan, enroute to Lucknow to participate in a sports meet. His peers echoed similar sentiments after a tour of Delhi and Agra, the city of the Taj Mahal. "We were touched by the hospitality we received from the moment we entered India via the Wagah border," said Lalarukh Zaidi, leading a 39-member team of athletes. The team got a taste of India when their Sada-e-Sarhad Lahore-Delhi bus developed some fault somewhere in Punjab. "The bus developed a snag somewhere in Punjab and we had to wait outside a school. The school authorities got a wind of things and very soon we were inside the institute having some refreshments," said an overwhelmed Zaidi, who traces her ancestral roots to Chittagong in Bangladesh and Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh. The News, 24 October 2005 Indian troops kill five in held Kashmir SRINAGAR: Indian troops have shot dead five suspected militants, three of them along the Line of Control (LoC), officials said on Monday. Three were killed late on Sunday in northern Kupwara district, an Indian army spokesman told foreign news agency. He said the three were trying to cross LoC from the Indian side when they were asked to stop. "It turned into a gun battle that left three militants dead," he said. The News, 24 October 2005 Pakistan's go-ahead awaited: India HELD SRINAGAR: The Indian Army in held Kashmir will use mules and helicopters to ensure planned relief camps for earthquake survivors from Azad Kashmir are operational by Tuesday, an army spokesman said. Despite damaged roads and bridges, the camps at three points along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir will be ready in time should the Pakistani government give the go-ahead for the plan, said army spokesman Vijay Batra. On Saturday, the Indian government said it had approached Pakistan with a proposal to open three centres along the LoC and was awaiting a response. The centres, which would provide relief to survivors in the hardest hit Azad Kashmir, would be operational by Tuesday, foreign affairs spokesman Navtej Sarna told a media conference. "People from across the LoC will be allowed to come in during daylight hours after suitable screening and then return," Sarna said.

The Hindu, 25 October 2005 Relief: Team to visit Pakistan NEW DELHI: Accepting Islamabad's October 22 proposal, India announced on Monday that a delegation of senior officials would visit Pakistan before the end of the month for talks on facilitating cooperation between the two countries in providing relief to the victims of the earthquake. "Both India and Pakistan have made specific proposals to facilitate such cooperation across the LoC [Line of Control]. These proposals are being examined by the two Governments and will also be discussed in the talks," the External Affairs Ministry spokesman told presspersons. While India had proposed the setting up of three relief-cum-medical centres at designated points close to the LoC, Pakistan suggested five crossing points to facilitate two-way movement of Kashmiris across the Line. The Indian Express, 25 October 2005 Indian troops no, US troops yes: Pak WASHINGTON: The US on Monday said it has increased financial assistance to earthquake victims in Pakistan by another $4.5 million, taking Washington's total aid to around $60 million. Announcing this, the US embassy also said nine more helicopters would be sent for relief operations in addition to 21 already in operation. It is also willing to nearly double its military forces to 1,000. The higher troop levels will come as Washington takes on bigger responsibilities in reconstruction and medical aid, including the setting up of two mobile hospitals with facilities to perform major surgeries, military officials said. Hindustan Times, 25 October 2005 Pakistan awaiting Indian response on LoC proposal ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday said it was awaiting India's response to its proposals on opening five points at the Line of Control (LoC) for quake relief activities on both sides of Kashmir. "We are awaiting Indian response to Pakistan's proposals... We are ready to discuss the modalities as soon as possible," Foreign Office Spokesperson Tasnim Aslam told reporters in Islamabad, adding that Pakistan awaited response from India to its suggestion to send an official team to discuss the modalities. She said Pakistan was open to exchange of relief supplies by officials of both countries in the five points along the LoC, which it had proposed to India to open. The Times Of India, 25 October 2005 Efforts on to open Indo-Pak border road MUZAFFARABAD: Even as an Indian team is coming to Pakistan for talks on opening up the Line of Control (LoC) between the two Kashmirs, efforts are on to clear the Chakothi-Muzaffarabad road to cross-frontier traffic after it was hit hard by the earthquake over a fortnight ago. "The road that was badly damaged in the Oct 8 quake has been repaired at several points while it will be completely opened by this weekend," an army official said. The official said they had airlifted some vital machinery to clear the landslides and that work on almost half the road was complete. He said there were three major landslides and "we hope to clear them by the weekend". The army official said the road would first be open for light traffic but "within a week or so we'll be able to open it for heavy traffic". The Times Of India, 25 October 2005 'Terror groups all over PoK camps' NEW DELHI: The Intelligence Bureau has sounded an alert to the Central and state governments over the virtual takeover of relief and rehabilitation measures in the quake-ravage Pakistan-occupied

Kashmir by terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba. In a specific warning, the IB has held that the "charity" initiative may generate a fund of goodwill in villages close to LoC for Lashkar, which had so far drawn the bulk of its cadre from Punjab and other parts of Pakistan. Lashkar activists, working under the aegis of Jama'at ul Dawa (JUD), have only stepped in where the military establishment of Pervez Musharraf could not. The inability of the Pakistan army to reach succour to the quake victims has, according to Amanullah Khan, chief of JKLF, resulted in its alienation with the uniform, while the jehadis, moving swiftly, have been able to garner sympathy and admiration of the local populace. Dawn, 25 October 2005 Indian team due on Friday for LoC talks (Raja Asghar) ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Monday an official Indian delegation would arrive in Islamabad on Friday to discuss procedures holding up a proposed softening of the military control line in Kashmir to help relief effort after the October 8 killer earthquake in the region. A Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Pakistan had asked India to send the delegation "as soon as possible" for talks to settle modalities for the implementation of separate proposals made by the two countries and that a response from New Delhi was still awaited. But a ministry statement later said New Delhi had informed Islamabad that "in response to Pakistan's formal proposal" the official delegation headed by a joint secretary in India's Ministry of External Affairs would arrive here on October 28. Dawn, 25 October 2005 Relief camps in Valley opposed SRINAGAR: A top Kashmiri leader criticised India's plans to operate three relief camps for Pakistani earthquake survivors along the ceasefire border. India says survivors in Azad Kashmir can cross the Line of Control (LoC) to the camps for treatment and supplies then cross back again. But Shabir Shah, one of the region's leading leader, said the camps would fail to help survivors rebuild their homes and villages. Instead, he said Kashmiris should be allowed to cross over to Azad Kashmir to assist survivors, as long as they registered with the army at border checkpoints. Daily Times, 25 October 2005 India wants focus on Pakistan's N-role NEW DELHI: Stepping up a campaign to project its record as a responsible nuclear state, India urged global powers on Monday not to gloss over rival Pakistan's role in encouraging Iran's controversial atomic programme. New Delhi, hoping to be officially recognised soon as the world's sixth atomic power, also said its proliferation record was much better than some recognised nuclear nations and urged the world to partner India and not target it. The comments by Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran were the first by New Delhi to strongly target Pakistan's alleged role as a nuclear proliferator. It comes amid hectic efforts by India and the United States to push a controversial civil nuclear agreement. "The international community must focus not merely on recipient states but on supplier states as well," Saran said, referring to the transfer of prohibited nuclear supplies. "Otherwise our global non-proliferation effort would be undermined by charges of motivated selectivity and discrimination," he said in a lecture on non-proliferation. Daily Times, 25 October 2005 India and Pakistan miss opportunity to overcome differences (Khalid Hasan) WASHINGTON: India and Pakistan have missed the opportunity offered by the October 8 earthquake of overcoming their long-standing differences and the suspicious nature of their relationship, according

to a "news analysis" published in the New York Times on Monday. The analysis by the newspaper's South Asia correspondent Somini Sengupta, helped by three of her associates in Pakistan, India and the US, quotes retired army general and analyst Talat Masood as saying that each side had disappointed him. "The human aspect could have prevailed, everything could have been set aside and acted as an anchor for the great leap they could have taken politically. Daily Times, 25 October 2005 Indian Army begins removing landmines in quake-hit areas NEW DELHI: The Indian Army has started removing landmines in the quake-hit areas of Jammu and Kashmir. Defence sources said on Monday that army units were busy removing thousands of mines along vast stretches of land at Poonch, Uri and Tangdhar. Many of the mines were laid during 2002, when India and Pakistan had deployed nearly a million troops during a standoff after the attack on the Indian Parliament. "There is still a lot of work left for us, and will take at least 40 days. So far, we have cleared 14 kilometres," said Colonel Bala Chandrudu of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO). The officials said that the de-mining operations will be completed by Monday evening. Soldiers will create a three-foot wide path for people from Azad Kashmir to cross the LoC. The Indian Army has been given orders to make the three meeting points along the LoC operational by Tuesday morning, they said. The Hindu, 26 October 2005 Ready to send relief material but our engineers cannot go: Pranab NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday offered material to help Pakistan rebuild its earthquake-affected areas but dismissed the probability of its engineers going over to the other side as "romanticism''. Speaking to newspersons here, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee denied that the proposal for setting up relief camps at three designated points on the Line of Control was deferred. The Hindu, 26 October 2005 Indian army sets up relief camps for Pak. quake victims GULPUR: One came to look for the brother he lost when Kashmir was violently split between India and Pakistan. Another hoped to see the family she left behind in Pakistani Kashmir when she married a man from India's part of the Himalayan land. Drawn by the promise of reconnecting with relatives they long ago lost touch with, about two dozen Indians gathered Tuesday outside a relief camp for Pakistani quake victims that Indian troops have set up along the disputed border in Kashmir. Although the camp remains empty and unused as the neighbors try to broker a deal that would allow people to cross the militarized frontier, it is already filling some Kashmiris with hope. The Hindu, 26 October 2005 India expresses concern over Gilgit situation NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday expressed concern over the situation in Gilgit (on the Pakistani side of the Line of Control), where a curfew was in force after "clashes" between Pakistani paramilitary forces and Shia students. Pointing out that the Gilgit-Baltistan area had a history of sectarian conflict, an External Affairs Ministry spokesman hoped that the Pakistani forces would act with the utmost restraint and observe international human rights' standards. He said the Government would keep a watch on the situation. This is one of the few occasions when India has spoken out on what it believes is an issue of human rights on the Pakistani side of the LoC. In the "clashes" between Pakistani forces and Shia students at least 10 persons, including two security personnel, were killed.

Hindustan Times, 26 October 2005 Pak stops work on setting up of relief camps at LoC POONCH: Even as troops made the border meeting camps for the divided families along Indo-Pak border in Jammu and Kashmir operational, Pakistan on Tuesday stopped setting up such camps on the other side. "Contrary to Indian's operational border camps for providing medical aid to the divided families on forward posts along LoC in Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan stopped such work on their side today," top army sources said. Pak army, which were engaged in the setting up of such camps at Kanch post in Tetrinote belt of their side, stopped the work and also uprooted the tents and other things and took them back, they said. "The joint relief and rescue operations along LoC and meeting of divided families would now be decided on October 29 at External Affairs Ministry level," they said adding therefore the commencement of operations have been stopped. Dawn, 26 October 2005 India started proliferation in region: FO (Qudssia Akhlaque) ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday hit back at India on the nuclear proliferation issue saying it was the latter that had started it in the region. Reacting sharply to Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran's Monday's statement calling upon the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, to further investigate Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan's role in nuclear proliferation, Foreign Office spokesperson asserted: "As regards South Asia, everyone knows which country started nuclear proliferation in the region. It was not Pakistan. India abused its civilian programme to divert technology for military purposes and exploded a nuclear device in 1974. The Spokesperson added: "Again India was the first to test in 1998. Pakistan however, was obliged to respond to the developments in our region to maintain a credible nuclear deterrence and security balance in the interest of peace in the region." The News, 26 October 2005 Callous India ignores Pak trauma (Mariana Baabar) ISLAMABAD: Displaying acute insensitivity and complete disregard for the difficult time Pakistan is passing through, India appears to be the only country in the world with complete disregard for human sufferings at an unprecedented scale. While the entire country is battling the massive earthquake tragedy and world capitals are seized with ways and means to help Pakistan in its moment of trial, New Delhi did the unbelievable. It tried to draw world attention away from the reality in Pakistan and instead tried to make the world focus on what it says is Pakistan's proliferation case with accusations made by none other than the Indian foreign secretary who said it was necessary to gain access to Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan. The Tribune, 27 October 2005 PM orders Punjab to four-lane road to Attari NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has instructed the Punjab government to take up the four-laning of Amritsar-Attari road on a priority basis in view of the intensifying economic engagement with Pakistan which has already started four-laning of Lahore-Wagah border road. A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the Trade and Economic Relations Committee (TERC) here yesterday which was chaired by the Prime Minister. The cost of the four-laning work will be borne by the state government. This decision is in harmony with the TERC's call for investment in trade-related infrastructure to facilitate imports from neighbours. The TERC has also decided to give an important trade-related concession to Pakistan by allowing import of molasses from Pakistan in wagons instead of the current practice of drums, the PMO announced today. Pakistan has been very keen on stepping

up its molasses exports to India saying that it will be of mutual benefit as India is a major consumer of molasses while the Islamic country, though a major producer of sugarcane, is a meagre consumer of sugarcane-byproduct molasses because of its limited production of alcoholic drinks. The Tribune, 27 October 2005 Pak slams India for targeting Dr Khan ISLAMABAD: Reacting strongly to New Delhi's call to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to further investigate Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan's nuclear network, Pakistan has held India responsible for promoting nuclear proliferation and arms race in the region. "Everyone knows which country started nuclear proliferation in the region," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ms Tasneem Aslam said in a statement last night while reacting sharply to Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran's Monday's statement. She said "It was not Pakistan but India which started arms race in the region. Dawn, 27 October 2005 India not to blame for relief delay, says Singh NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said India was not to blame for the delay in affording relief to Pakistani earthquake victims from across the ceasefire line in earthquakedevastated Kashmir. His comments came hours after Pakistani soldiers objected to the construction of a footbridge by Indian troops across the Line of Control (LoC) to allow Pakistani quake victims to cross into Indian-administered Kashmir. "The delay is not on our side," Mr Singh told reporters in New Delhi when asked to comment on bilateral plans to open the LoC at pre-selected points to help out the tens of thousands of quake victims. India on Saturday said that it would open three points on the LoC by Tuesday, while Pakistan suggested five such cross-border relief centres. Dawn, 27 October 2005 India abandons global nuclear disarmament (Praful Bidwai) NEW DELHI: Seven years after blasting its way into the world's 'nuclear club', India has executed a major shift in its policy stance by jettisoning its long-standing advocacy of global nuclear disarmament in favour of nuclear non-proliferation. On Monday, the country's Foreign Secretary, Shyam Saran, enunciated a new doctrinal orientation: India will now be 'part of a new global consensus on nonproliferation'. The new stance is in line with a far-reaching agreement on nuclear weapons and atomic power signed between India and the United States in July. From now on India will pay lip service, if even that, to the goal of fighting for universal nuclear weapons abolition and a nuclear weapons-free world. Daily Times, 27 October 2005 India mulls AJK residents' lodging in IHK villages NEW DELHI: India will allow Azad Kashmir residents crossing the Line of Control (LoC) to stay with their relatives in the border villages for three to four nights, official sources said on Wednesday. A decision taken last weekend to permit relatives living across the LoC to meet at the relief centres is being relaxed further to allow people coming from the Pakistani side to visit their relations' homes if they live in nearby villages, sources said. However, they will have to return after a short stay with as much relief material as they want. The maximum permissible duration of stay across the LoC will be four days, sources said. Sources said that three relief centres have already started operating on the LoC, offering relief and medical assistance.

The News, 27 October 2005 Pakistan will welcome Indian relief supplies: FO ISLAMABAD: Pakistan says that it would welcome medical relief supplies from India at the Line of Control (LoC) for the earthquake victims who desperately need them. The Foreign Office spokeswoman was responding to a statement by India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in which he said New Delhi was not to blame for delay in establishing relief camps along the LoC for the benefit of quake-affected people of Azad Kashmir. "The delay is not on our side," he told reporters after the swearing-in of Wajahat Habibullah as Chief Information Commissioner under the new Right to Information Act at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. India on Saturday last proposed setting up of relief camps for quake-hit victims of Azad Kashmir at three places - Teetwal, Kaman and Chakan da Bagh - along the LoC if Pakistan agreed. The Hindu, 28 October 2005 India offers Rs. 112 cr. to Pakistan NEW DELHI: India has offered Rs. 112.45 crores in assistance to Pakistan for relief and rehabilitation of the October 8 earthquake victims. The External Affairs Ministry spokesman announced on Thursday that Minister of State for Statistics Oscar Fernandes made the offer at a conference organised by the United Nations Office of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Geneva on Wednesday. This is the largest-ever monetary assistance announced by India for Pakistan since independence, official sources said after the announcement. In dollar terms, the assistance pledged is $25 million or Rs. 149.44 crores in Pakistani rupees. The Tribune, 28 October 2005 Natwar meets Shaukat, Iranian Vice-President NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh has held talks with Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in Moscow where he is understood to have told the Pakistani Premier that India was willing to open the Line of Control (LoC) at more than half a dozen points for contributing to speedier and more effective relief and rehabilitation operations in the wake of the October 8 earthquake. Mr Natwar Singh also discussed the Indian contributions, already made and in the pipeline, for quakerelief operations, diplomatic sources said today. The meeting, held on the margins of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Moscow, coincides with India's announcement of $ 25 million worth of quake relief to Pakistan. It also assumes significance as a high-level multi-ministerial official Indian delegation reaches Islamabad tomorrow evening for talks relating to partial opening of the Line of Control for more effective disbursement of quake relief. Dawn, 28 October 2005 Indian team arrives today for LoC talks ISLAMABAD: A six-member Indian delegation headed by Joint Secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs Dilip Sinha is scheduled to arrive here on Friday evening for talks on allowing cross-LoC movement. The talks will be held on Saturday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Pakistan delegation will be led by Mr. Ibne Abbas, director-general South Asia Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will include representatives of the Ministries of Interior, Defence and Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas. It is believed that the meeting follows intensive negotiations and discussions through the informal back-channel. The discussions between the two sides would focus on the modalities which include the timeline, documents and category of travellers.

Daily Times, 28 October 2005 Quake relief centres opened on LoC: Aziz MOSCOW: Pakistan has opened earthquake relief centres along the Line of Control (LoC) to improve the flow of aid and movement of people affected by the October 8 earthquake, said Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Thursday. "Pakistan has opened relief centres on various proposed points of movement across the LoC," the prime minister told agencies as he prepared to return to Islamabad after attending a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting. Aziz said people on both sides of the LoC wanted to visit their relatives and take part in relief efforts. He said, "This will be aid going in both directions, not one-way traffic." Indian officials will meet Pakistani officials in Islamabad on Friday "to sort out the modalities" of the Kashmir border crossing points, he added. The Hindu, 29 October 2005 Indian team in Pak. for talks on opening points along LOC ISLAMABAD: A six-member Indian delegation is in Pakistan to finalise modalities on opening some points and relief camps along the LoC to help the quake affected Kashmiri people and permit them to meet their relatives on the other side. The one day talks would "decide the modalities for Kashmiris to cross the control the LOC to meet each other," Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson, Tasneem Aslam told reporters here on Friday. The Indian team led by Dilip Sinha, Joint Secretary of External Affairs Ministry, which arrived here on Friday night, was received at the airport by officials of Pakistan Foreign Office and the Indian High Commission here. Sinha, in-charge of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran affairs, would hold talks with Ibne Abbas, the Director General of South Asia Division in Pakistan Foreign Office to reach an agreement on the India and Pakistan proposals to permit the visits of Kashmiris on both sides and to enable them to avail the services of the relief camps being set up by both the countries along the LOC. The Hindu, 29 October 2005 Pakistan takes exception to India's remark (B Muralidhar Reddy) ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has taken "strong exception" to the remarks made by the Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman on the situation in Gilgit in the aftermath of a sectarian flare-up. In a press statement here, the Foreign Office said the "fundamental issue is not any single incident in Gilgit and Baltistan but the systematic and large-scale human rights violations of the Kashmiri people by the Indian occupation forces." Rather than pointing a finger at Pakistan, India should "address the widespread human rights violations of people in occupied Kashmir". The "unwarranted comments" were also inconsistent with the positive atmosphere the two sides were trying to build, the statement said. Dawn, 29 October 2005 Indian team arrives for LoC talks ISLAMABAD: Senior officials of Pakistan, India and two Kashmirs will meet here on Saturday to discuss the opening of the Line of Control to facilitate two-way movement of Kashmiris across the divide. Officials here say it is "a very important meeting" prompted by President General Pervez Musharraf's announcement on Oct 18 that Pakistan is ready to open the LoC to allow Kashmiris from the other side to come and join their relatives in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake. In a formal proposal made to India on Oct 22, Pakistan suggested opening up of five crossing points along the LoC. India, however, made a counter-proposal of establishing three meeting points.

The Indian Express, 30 October 2005 India, Pak begin talks on opening LoC CHAKOTHI: Three weeks after a devastating earthquake killed more than 56,000 people in Pakistan and India, officials from the two countries met on Saturday to discuss opening their Kashmir border to survivors. With the Himalayan winter just weeks away and millions homeless, fears are growing for the lives of tens of thousands villagers in the mountainous region straddling the divided Kashmir region worst hit by the Oct. 8 quake. Dawn, 30 October 2005 Pakistan, India agree to open five LoC points (Qudssia Akhlaque) ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and India have agreed to open foot crossings at five points across the Line of Control that divides Kashmir from November 7. The agreement was reached between the two sides after intense negotiations at the senior officials' meeting held at the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad on Saturday. A one-page joint press statement issued at the end of the marathon talks well past midnight announced that the five crossing points across the LoC that the two sides agreed to open are: NauseriTithwal; Chakoti-Uri; Hajipur-Uri; Rawalakot-Poonch and Tattapani-Mendhar. The agreement on the five crossing points proposed by Pakistan covers the three meeting points suggested by India in a counter-proposal. The Indian Express, 31 October 2005 Blasts paused quake diplomacy, New Delhi said let's move forward NEW DELHI: Although the festival-eve terror came close to breaching India's threshold of tolerance to terrorism, the Government consciously chose last night not to let the Delhi bombings come in the way of the quake diplomacy with Pakistan. The government's decision to avoid a knee-jerk response to the terror attacks has given it time and space to assess the results of the investigation as well as digest the full import of the earthquake on power politics in Pakistan. Even as bombs were going off in Delhi's markets last night, bilateral negotiations in Islamabad on opening the LoC for quake victims in Kashmir were at a delicate stage. Once the Indian delegation in Pakistan was informed of the Delhi bombings, there was a long pause between the third and final rounds last night in Islamabad. As the Indian delegation got in touch with New Delhi, Pakistan was quick to come up with a strong condemnation of the attacks. The Indian Express, 31 October 2005 Opening Nov 7: Five points on LoC NEW DELHI: India will have to take a relook at its plans to set up relief and rehabilitation centres at three points along the Line of Control after Pakistan turned down the proposal, saying such centres were not needed now as sufficient relief was available on the Pakistani side of the LoC. New Delhi had taken the initiative on October 22 and announced that it was ready to set up composite relief and rehabilitation points at three places: Kaman (near Aman Setu in Uri), Tithwal (Tangdhar) and Chakan da Bagh (Poonch), to provide facilities for medical assistance and relief to people from across the Line of Control. The idea was to make large enclosures at these points, where people from the Pakistani side can walk in without any documentation for purposes of relief. The area would have been a sanitised zone and fully secured. It was also decided that those receiving medical treatment could also stay overnight on doctor's advice. The Hindu, 31 October 2005

I'm making LoC irrelevant: Musharraf ISLAMABAD: Hours before India and Pakistan signed the agreement on opening points along the Line of Control (LoC) for earthquake relief and reconstruction operations, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said on Sunday that with the decision he was making the LoC "irrelevant." In an interview to Arab News, an English daily, Gen. Musharraf expressed the hope that in the aftermath of the earthquake, there would be some sort of "political rapprochement" between India and Pakistan. Dawn, 31 October 2005 'Time ripe to move ahead on Kashmir': I'm for demilitarization, says Musharraf JEDDAH: President Pervez Musharraf has signalled willingness to accept the idea of demilitarization for the ultimate settlement of the Kashmir dispute while observing that the Oct 8 earthquake on both sides of the Line of Control had offered an "opportunity" to move forward on the issue. "I am for demilitarization. If they agree to that, we will too. We are very flexible. We are absolutely open to moving forward to the ultimate solution. You can't clap with one hand; you can only clap with two," he told Arab News when asked if thought it was high time for people from both sides to do something for peace in the wake of the natural calamity. "There must be political movement. There must be discussions between India and Pakistan involving Kashmiris that will lead to results. I am for these results. This is an opportunity. You are very right that we are spending too much money on the military," he said. Dawn, 31 October 2005 LoC accord praised by Mirwaiz (Jawed Naqvi) NEW DELHI: Kashmir's spiritual leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Sunday condemned Saturday's terror attacks here and expressed relief that the incident had failed to derail a landmark agreement between India and Pakistan to open the Line of Control for providing relief to quake-hit people. Talking to this correspondent on telephone from Srinagar, he said that an alleged Kashmiri group which had reportedly claimed responsibility for the Delhi outrage was completely unknown in Kashmir. On Sunday, a man claiming to be a representative of the Islami Inqalabi Mahaz (Islamic Revolutionary Front) telephoned local newspapers in held Kashmir to claim responsibility for the blasts and warned of more to come. Daily Times, 31 October 2005 Pak-Russian ties do not bother India: Natwar MOSCOW: India is not concerned at the possibility of Russia's defence cooperation with Pakistan because it believes Moscow will never take steps that could harm New Delhi, said Indian External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh. "Russia and Pakistan have the right to develop bilateral cooperation, and we are not concerned over this. We believe that Russia will not take steps which could harm India," Singh told Russian government daily 'Rossiskaya Gazeta.' Earlier, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had expressed Islamabad's desire to develop defence cooperation with Russia while visiting Moscow to attend a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting. However, he added that this depended on how far Moscow would move in this direction and what it could offer.