Trade across the LOC

The decision by the Indian and Pakistani governments to allow limited trade across the Line of Control (formerly Cease-fire Line) in Kashmir began implementation amidst much fanfare on Tuesday. The first consignment, limited to trucks carrying apples, onions, nuts and honey rumbled from across the Indian-held Kashmir into Azad Jammu and Kashmir while Kashmiri traders from AJK sent rice and rock salt across the Line of Control.
At present only 21 items are approved for trade and the 106-mile road - running along a mountain valley from Srinagar in Indian-held Kashmir to Muzaffarabad in AJK - will remain closed five days a week, with non-traders not allowed to freely cross the border; however the Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan expressed his optimism for expansion of trade between the two sides, "I am confident that this beginning will lead us to proper and regular trade and commerce." Narendra Nath Vohra, the Governor of Indian-held Kashmir, told crowds "it's a historic day which will surely help the economies of both parts of Kashmir".
Considering that trade has opened after 61 years of tensions across the LoC this is indeed a landmark step which would require careful nurturing through confidence-building measures by the governments of India and Pakistan that must take account of the wishes of the Kashmiri people on both sides of the border. Trade between AJK and Indian-held Kashmir can have another important dimension besides the obvious economic benefit: it can provide 'emotional relief' to the people on both sides of the border, thereby easing tensions and eventually ushering in an era of peace within the Subcontinent.
The decade before the end of the last century saw the dismantling of artificial borders that separated ethnically homogenous people or kept ethnically/religiously diverse people together: the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Bosnia-Herzegovina ethnic cleansing as offshoots of the end of the Cold War associated with the collapse of the Soviet Union are two examples. However, today, as an aftermath of the ongoing war on terror the world is unwilling to accept the breakaway of any region from a state on ethnic or sectarian reasons. Perhaps the most potent example is that of the Kurds in Iraq who were supported by the US while Saddam was in power however their desire to form their own state is no longer being supported.
In this context several regions, like Kashmir, that had argued that they represented ethnic minorities within a larger country and denied the right of self determination in accordance with United Nations resolutions were being victimised as a consequence have been labelled as terrorists instead of freedom fighters. The Kashmiri peoples' struggle for independence has, according to independent human rights groups, left 77,000 people dead and as many as 10,000 missing.
This does not include the casualties of the two wars that Pakistan and India fought on this account without any resolution of this dispute. Thus conflict in the Subcontinent is no longer considered a viable option to resolve longstanding border disputes. The only way out is to develop and then strengthen trade through negotiations rather than through the barrel of a gun and work towards the resolution of this conflict in a manner that is acceptable to Pakistan, India and above all the Kashmiris on both sides of the LoC.