India and Pakistan Open Historic Kashmir Trade Route

India and Pakistan opened a trade route across divided Kashmir for the first time in six decades today, another step in lowering temperatures between the nuclear-armed neighbors.

From Indian Kashmir came fruit, nuts and honey while Pakistani Kashmiri traders sent rice and rock salt. Security was tight for the opening, with even the fruit subject to stringent security checks.

Hundreds gathered on both sides of the de facto border - symbolizing the yearning for a solution to the bitter dispute which has led to three wars.

Lorries are expected to drive a few kilometers inside rival territory and unload. "It is a big leap forward," said Mubeen Shah, the president of India's Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry. "We will be sending 11 truck load of goods across the line of control."

The lorries will take the same route as the bus service connecting Srinagar, Indian Kashmir's summer capital, and Muzaffarabad, that capital of Pakistani Kashmir. Transporting people has been largely unsuccessful - not least because of the suffocating bureaucracy. Only 9,000 passengers have used the service since 2005.

The trade, limited to one day a week, is an attempt to bring a peace dividend to the Himalayan region that in recent months has seen an upsurge in anti-Indian rioting and heavy firing between Indian and Pakistani troops.

India has been reluctant in recent years to open its Kashmiri border, saying that it would simply receive an influx of Islamic militants from Pakistan. Indian Kashmir has been scarred by a violent insurgency since 1989 and peace is kept by the presence of hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

The violence has fallen sharply since the nuclear-armed states began a peace process in 2004 aimed at settling all outstanding issues including the future of Kashmir, which they both claim in full.

However the new administration in Pakistan has surprised many in India with its emphasis on building trust through trade. Pakistan's new president, Asif Ali Zardari, told the Wall Street Journal this month he wanted to see Pakistani-stitched jeans and Pakistani cement sold in India. "There is no other economic survival for nations like us. We have to trade with our neighbors first," he said.

With an eye on Delhi's security concerns, Zardari went further than any of his predecessors to state that militants were "mujahideen or terrorists who do not operate under the command of a [Pakistani] general ... [they are] wolf packs hunting on their own".

Despite a flurry of denials, the Wall Street Journal's own recording of the interview shows clearly that Pakistani president used the word "terrorists" to describe militants. He also surprised Delhi by saying India had "never been a threat" to Pakistan.

The interview raised eyebrows in Delhi, which has accused Pakistan in recent months of playing a dangerous double game - talking peace while sending over bombers. "Does the [Pakistani] army endorse its civilian commander-in-chief's India policy?" asked Vinod Sharma of the Hindustan Times.