Kashmir peace bus passengers cross ceasefire line

PEACE BRIDGE, India-Pakistan border - Showered with tears and rose petals from relatives thought long lost, two groups of Indian and Pakistani Kashmiris walked over the "Peace Bridge" breaking through a military line that has divided them and their land with blood for almost 60 years.

Nineteen Indian Kashmiris, mostly elderly and wearing green commemorative caps, defied separatist threats and crossed the metal bridge -- painted neutral white for the occasion -- hours after 31 Pakistanis walked into India to reunite divided families.

"I can't control my emotion. I am setting foot in my motherland," said a tearful Shahid Bahar, a lawyer from the capital of PakistanI Kashmir, Muzaffarabad.

"I am coming here for the first time to meet my blood relations," said Bahar, whose father crossed over in 1949."It was my dream. It is unbelieveable. Everyone is here."

On both sides, they were hugged and kissed by relatives they had not held for decades, or in some cases, ever.

"It's for the first time that I have seen my uncle," sobbed Noreen Arif, an adviser to Pakistani Kashmir's prime minister, bursting into tears and hugging him as he stepped off the bridge.

Attacks by Islamic separatists who threatened to turn the buses into rolling coffins scared off some passengers but failed to derail one of the most significant and emotive steps in South Asia's unsteady peace process.

"The caravan of peace has started," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said as he sent off the Pakistan-bound bus in front of a crowd of thousands braving freezing drizzle at the Lion of Kashmir stadium in Srinagar, summer capital of Indian Kashmir and the region's heart and soul."Nothing can stop it."

Separatists tried, firing two rifle grenades at one of the Muzaffarabad-bound buses soon after it left. But no one was hurt, the bus was not hit and did not stop.

Two guerrillas staged a suicide attack on a fortified government complex housing the passengers on Wednesday just a few hundred metres from the Lion of Kashmir stadium.

They torched the complex. The passengers escaped, although five later pulled out, including two who got off almost as soon as the buses left. As the white-and-green buses draped with marigolds drove off, the complex was still smouldering nearby.

On both sides of the heavily militarised and policed border, in an area once shelled almost daily, large crowds of locals gathered on the sides of the steep, rocky Pir Panjal mountains to watch the event, turned into a major celebration by India.

A large billboard faces Pakistan at the bridge, reading: "No religion teaches animosity towards each other."

Security in Indian Kashmir was the tightest for years -- an armoured car and a busload of soldiers tailed the buses. Rebel threats had created a deep sense of unease but also defiance among Kashmiris determined to see families reunited.

"A door has opened," said Singh, in his trademark blue turban, speaking behind bullet-proof glass. "Pakistan and especially President General Pervez Musharraf have helped us open this door. This is the beginning of a new phase. Violence is not going to solve any problems."

He was speaking at the same stadium where his predecessor, Atal Behari Vajpayee, kicked off the peace process two years ago this month, extending "the hand of friendship" to Pakistan after near war in 2002. Musharraf is due to visit New Delhi this month.

The buses stopped at the Indian town of Salamabad for lunch. School children waved flags, bands played and cooks prepared a traditional "wazwan" feast of 35 dishes, almost all mutton.

Seventy-five-year-old Mohammed Taj from Indian Kashmir wants to see his sister before he dies.

"For that, I am ready to die. Death is in the hands of God. Inshallah, we will meet," he said.

Despite the risk, passengers from both sides were determined.

"There is a risk but I am taking the risk so that this bus is the first step towards a resolution of Kashmir," said Sharif Hussain Bukhari, a retired Pakistani judge going back after 55 years to see his sister and cousins.

"The Line of Contro1 could fall like the Berlin Wall."

The service, which will run only twice a month, is a small concession for families separated by conflict since 1947 but also carries hopes of a big boost to a cautious peace process.

Washington called it "a powerful symbol of rapprochement" between rivals have fought two wars over mainly Muslim Kashmir.

"This bus should lead to the disappearances of borders forever," said the popular leader of Indian Kashmir's ruling party, Mehbooba Mufti, who was at the bridge.

Islamic rebels say the bus will only serve Indian aims to hold on to the Himalayan region. But analysts say the separatists, who include many non-Kashmiri fighters, have misread popular opinion and are also afraid closer links between the two Kashmirs will weaken the rebel movement.

- REUTERS