Kashmiri grief crosses India-Pakistan divide

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan, Oct 4 (Reuters) Grief knows no boundaries in divided Kashmir.

Naseema Niaz is buried in Muzaffarabad, the capital of the Pakistan-occupied side of Kashmir (PoK).

The flowers on the 53-year-old woman's grave come from her childhood home in Srinagar, where she was born and lived until moving to Muzaffarabad in PoK to marry a cousin 28 years ago.

Niaz's body was dug out of the rubble of the government girls school where she had been headmistress until October eight last year -- the day an earthquake killed 73,000 people in northern Pakistan and another 1,500 in Kashmir.

Her brother, Syed Azad Hussain, brought the long-stemmed gladioli and his tears from across the ceasefire line that splits this beautiful, sorrowful region.

''I still don't believe that she has chosen this place for herself,'' said Hussain, as he scattered the red and yellow flowers over the grave, tears streaming down his face.

''These flowers are from her parental home,'' he said, remembering times before Naseema left Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmir, to get married.

Hussain went with her then, but the last time he saw her alive was when she visited Srinagar in 1997.

It is a common enough story in Kashmir, where thousands of people lost relatives in the quake on the other side of the LoC that only a few have been able to cross.

LOST OPPORTUNITY Almost every family history is part of a tragedy that goes back long before last year's earthquake to the creation of Pakistan from the Partition of India in 1947.

Since then, Kashmir has been the cause of two of three wars fought by India and Pakistan. Around 45,000 people have been killed in an insurgency that began in 1989.

The insurgency isn't over despite New Delhi and Islamabad starting a peace process almost three years ago.

At least they are talking, but there is still little sign that the two old enemies are moving closer to a resolution of the Kashmir issue, which both countries claim in full.

Hopes that the quake would shake both governments out of entrenched diplomatic positions proved futile.

There was never much chance of people busting through the political barriers by rushing to each other's aid given the security presence on the heavily mined frontier.

''It was definitely an opportunity missed,'' said Noor Ahmad Baba, head of Kashmir University's political science department in Srinagar.

''Both India and Pakistan have not been able to rise beyond their traditional politics after such a big human tragedy,'' he added.

The two governments did open five border crossings in Kashmir weeks after the quake to allow survivors to help each other and for exchanges of relief, but the move was seen as largely symbolic.

''If these two countries had launched joint relief operations, it would have given a big boost to peace efforts. But unfortunately it did not happen,'' said Baba.

For all the talking, the only tangible advance on the Kashmir issue so far has been the opening in April 2005 of a fortnightly bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad, and a second service that was started in June this year between Rawalakot in PoK and Poonch in Kashmir.

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