Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari at the UN in New York and both agreed to boost a faltering peace process between the nuclear-armed neighbors, a joint statement said yesterday.
Singh and Zardari held discussions on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
“Both leaders acknowledged that the peace process has been under strain in recent months,” the statement said. “They agreed that violence, hostility and terrorism have no place in the vision they share of the bilateral relationship, and must be visibly and verifiably prevented.”
Two trade routes across a de facto border in Kashmir, the Himalayan region divided between the two rivals, will open on Oct. 21 to help improve ties, it said.
Predominantly Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since they were created in the bloody partition of the Indian subcontinent at independence from Britain in 1947.
The two nations regularly exchanged gunfire along Kashmir’s de facto border, known as the Line of Control, before signing a ceasefire in late 2003 and initiating a peace process a year later.
After a long period of relative calm there have been more than two dozen incidents along the frontier this year, with both sides accusing the other of violating the truce.
India has also accused Pakistan of involvement in more than a dozen bombings in India over the past three years, as well as the July bombing of New Delhi’s embassy in Afghanistan. Pakistan has denied the accusations.
The two sides also agreed that foreign secretaries from both sides would meet in the next three months.
From Oct. 21 trade routes would open between Srinagar and Poonch in Indian Kashmir and Muzaffarbad and Rawalkot in Pakistan, the statement said. A third route between Kargil and Skardu will also be discussed.
During recent protests in Indian-controlled Kashmir, demand for trade between the two parts of the region became a major issue after Hindu groups blockaded major roads leading to the rest of India, causing shortages of food and medicine.
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