A Pakistani bus driver, happy to be on his way to India

ISLAMABAD, July 11 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Passenger buses Friday, July 11,  crossed the border between India and Pakistan for the first time in 18 months in the most tangible sign of easing tensions between the South Asian arch-rivals.

The bus from Pakistan crossed into India carrying a sick child and 27 others hours before the Indian bus with 32 on board halted at the land transit point of Wagah before entering Pakistan, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

The buses are the first cross-border transport links between the neighbors since ties snapped after a December 13, 2001 attack on the Indian parliament by gunmen New Delhi claims were backed by Islamabad – charges Pakistan vehemently denied.

"We welcome the resumption of the service and hope it will lead to improvement of relations between Pakistan and India," Pakistani Tourism Minister Raess Munir Ahmed said before the Pakistan bus left the eastern city of Lahore at dawn.

And in New Delhi, officials hailed the service to the Pakistani city, but did not forget to admonish Islamabad once again for its alleged support to an Islamic insurgency in Indian Kashmir.

"I hope better sense will prevail upon Pakistan and it will stop cross-border infiltration," Surface Transport Minister B.C. Khanduri said, flagging off the Lahore-bound bus in pounding monsoon rains.

 ‘Emotional Moment’

"I hope better sense will prevail,” Khanduri

Indians aboard the bus to Pakistan shared a moment of joy with passengers from Pakistan as the two buses crossed path in the northern Indian state of Punjab.

"It was an emotional moment when the green-colored bus came from the opposite direction as it too carried people like us who are eager to start new relationships," Virendra Kumar said by cellular telephone from the Indian bus.

Among passengers on the bus from Pakistan was two-year-old Noor Fatima who was being taken by her mother for cardiac treatment in the southern Indian city of Bangalore.

"She has a hole in the heart and people have told me they have the expertise at a Bangalore hospital to cure her," she said.

Heavy security is in place, with police escorting both buses, and passengers were frisked and had their luggage checked before boarding the bus, the BBC NewsOnline reported.

The presence of armed guards shows just how fragile relations between the two sides are, it added.

In New Delhi, about 100 members of the radical Hindu group Shiv Sena, waving black flags and holding placards denouncing Pakistan, jeered the departure of the Lahore-bound bus.

Neither side has so far set a date for negotiations or even agreed on talks about talks.

New Delhi has made clear the offer of talks is dependent on Pakistan halting the flow of Islamic rebels from its zone of disputed Kashmir into the Indian sector.

More than 38,000 people have died in Kashmir since the eruption of an anti-Indian rebellion in 1989. Separatists put the toll twice as high.

India halted air, train and bus links with Pakistan after the attack on parliament, which also led to both sides deploying nearly a million troops on their shared border in a year-long stand off.

But India-Pakistan relations have begun to thaw in recent weeks following Vajpayee's offer of a hand of friendship to Pakistan on April 18, which was followed by steps on both sides to restore diplomatic ties and air links.

Ready For Air Links

Hours after launching the first bus service , India said it was ready to resume air links with its South Asian rival.

"We are ready for the resumption of air links and overflight facilities with Pakistan, Indian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Navtej Sarna said, adding that New Delhi was awaiting a response from Islamabad.

"We had sought clarifications on the resumption of civil aviation links several weeks ago. They told us these clarifications could come at a technical-level meeting," Sarna said.

The two countries had squabbled over the resumption of flights halted during last year's war tensions.

Pakistan has said that India must offer guarantees that it would not unilaterally freeze passenger flights like it did after the 2001 attack on the national parliament in New Delhi.

India also rejects Pakistan’s demands for counter-guarantees.

Hopes For No More Excuses

In the meanwhile, Pakistani Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar expressed hope Friday that a South Asian summit, which his country is due to host in January, will not be delayed again by conflict with India.

"India through one or the other excuse has postponed three summits in the past including the present one. I hope India will not make an excuse for reverting the summit," Khokhar said.

He was addressing reporters in Kathmandu where foreign secretaries of the seven-member South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) on Thursday set January 4-6 for the summit in Islamabad.

The summit was due to be held in January 2003, but Pakistan delayed it after India did not confirm the attendance of its prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee.

SAARC, founded in 1985, includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakand Sri Lanka.