India, Pak agree on fresh measures

Announcing a series of measures to enhance people-to-people contacts, India and Pakistan today pledged not to allow terrorism to impede the "irreversible" peace process agreed to address the Jammu and Kashmir issue in a "purposeful and forward looking manner" for a final settlement.

The fresh confidence building measures including the decision to increase the frequency of bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad and allow trucks to use the road to promote trade were contained in a joint statement issued at the end of the three-day visit of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.

The statement, read out by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with Musharraf by his side at the Hyderabad House where they held talks yesterday, said the two leaders determined that the peace process was now irreversible.

The two sides agreed to open additional routes between Poonch and Rawalkot and start a rail link between Khokhrapar in Rajasthan and Munnabao in Pakistan's Sindh province by January 1, 2006.

The two-page statement said both sides looked forward to an early start of the bus service between Amritsar and Lahore and to religious places such as Nankana Sahib in Pakistan.

They decided to pursue further measures to enhance interaction and co-operation along the Line of Control (LoC) including "agreed meeting points for divided families, trade, pilgrimages and cultural interactions."

Condemning the attempts to disrupt the Srinagar- Muzaffarabad bus service, the two leaders pledged that they would "not allow terrorism to impede the peace process," the statement said.