Zardari-Singh meeting may decide timeframe for cross LoC trade

Islamabad, Sept 24 : A formal announcement about the dates of launching cross-Line of Control (LoC) trade in Kashmir is likely to be made after today's meeting between President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, diplomatic sources said.

"This will be high on the agenda of bilateral talks between the two leaders in their first ever meeting," informed diplomatic sources said.

The schedule and other details of the cross-LoC trade agreement reached between the two sides at a meeting on Monday in New Delhi would be reflected in a joint statement likely to be issued after the Zardari-Singh meeting, the Daily Times quoted the sources as saying.

A statement issued after the New Delhi meeting had said: "The modalities of cross-LoC trade were finalised."

Later, the leader of Pakistan delegation Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Additional Secretary (South Asia) at the foreign ministry, told journalists that the trade list had also been finalised.

The initiation of cross-LoC trade would be the second major Kashmir-related CBM between the two countries after the launch of Srinagar-Muzafarrabad bus service in April 2005.

Subsequently, in Oct 2005 the two nations also agreed to open foot crossings at five points across the LoC. However, currently only three meeting points on the LoC are operational. The proposal of intra-Kashmir trade was first mooted in 2005 and India had been particularly keen on it.

ANI