Phone lines between two Kashmirs go active

The first phone call between Srinagar and Muzzaffarabad in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir was made this afternoon, opening communication between anxious divided families but united in grief in the aftermath of the October 8 quake.

Officials at the police control room where the facility has been set up for a fortnight and will be free to the people said the first call was made to Muzaffarabad at 1.15 pm.

Initially, there were few families who had come, they said expecting the rush to pick up as the day progressed and news about the facility being successful spread.

Meanwhile, India tonight turned down a Pakistani proposal for establishing cross-LoC mobile telephone linkages in Jammu and Kashmir but said a direct telecom connection could be set up at the Attari-Wagah border.

"We had received a note verbale from Pakistan wanting to establish mobile telephone linkages across the Line of Control (LoC). We have conveyed that communication linkages already exist through international satellite and sea cable networks," external affairs ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said in New Delhi.