Deadlock ends: After successful talks, cross-LoC trade resumes

All but one stranded trucks reach their respective destinations

MUZAFFARABAD:

Trade between the two halves of the disputed Himalayan state resumed Wednesday evening after officials from Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Indian-administered Kashmir broke a nearly weeklong impasse after successful talks.

All the stranded trucks – 20 in Indian Kashmir and 50 in AJK – crossed the Line of Control (LoC) and reached their destinations except for the one in which the Indian Kashmir authorities claimed to have recovered narcotics.

The officials from both sides agreed to share information on drug traffickers who wanted to sabotage the cross-LoC trade, said AJK Travel and Trade Authority (TATA) DG Brigadier (retd) Imtiaz Wain while talking to The Express Tribune.

The police, meanwhile, registered an FIR against Syed Inyat Shah, the driver who is in the custody of Indian Kashmir authorities, absconding trader Ishtiaq Mir and Trade Facilitation Officer (TFO) Basharat Iqbal, an employee of the AJK government who was in charge of the cross-LoC trade and travel at the Chakothi Trade Facilitation Centre.

The TFO would be questioned in the alleged narcotic smuggling, police sources confirmed while talking to The Express Tribune.

“We have arrested TFO Basharat Iqbal and started the investigation. Police teams have already been sent to different areas of AJK to arrest absconding trader Ishtiaq Mir. Initially, the police arrested the father, two brothers and son of the absconding trader to get the information about the trader,” said a police official on condition of anonymity.

Both commissioner and deputy police chief of the area are monitoring the case on a priority basis, he added.

Last Friday, authorities in Indian Kashmir detained 22 trucks carrying goods from AJK after claiming they had recovered 10kg of narcotics from one of the vehicles. TATA denied the charge and called upon Indian authorities to share the evidence and return the trucker for investigation.

When Indian authorities refused to cooperate, TATA detained 50 trucks and their drivers from Indian Kashmir at the Chakothi Trade Facilitation Centre.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 12^th, 2015.