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Solemn Eid for divided Kashmiri families in PoK

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AFP Muzaffarabad (PoK)
For thousands of Kashmiri families divided by one of the most heavily militarised borders in the world, this year's Eid al-Fitr festival offers cold comfort as India-Pakistan tensions flare.

Families split between Jammu & Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir have barely seen each other for decades and with peace talks on ice following deadly cross-border attacks, hopes are bleak.

The nuclear-armed neighbours have fought two of their three wars over the Muslim-majority Himalayan region which is claimed by both countries in full but divided along the Line of Control (LoC).

Eid is a time for new clothes, sweets and giving children money. But for many families, finances are too tight for celebration. Instead they spend Eid remembering loved ones across the border.
 

"I miss my mother, sisters and brother all the time but especially at Eid," said Uzhair Mohammad Ghazali, 38, at a refugee camp on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad, the main town in PoK.

"I've been weeping for them here while they've been weeping for me there. We have no hope that we'll be reunited in our lives."

Since arriving in PoK, he has married and had six children of his own, but apart from trekking to a border crossing to stare at them through the barbed wire, he has not seen his family again.

Sometimes the families speak by telephone and Ghazali saw his sisters after Eid in 2012 when they stood on opposite banks of the river next to the Tetwal crossing point and stared at each other.

Eid 2013 comes with India under mounting domestic pressure to delay indefinitely proposed peace talks with Pakistan after five Indian soldiers were killed in a cross-border attack on Monday.

India says specialist Pakistani troops were involved in the killings and has hinted at stronger military action.

Pakistan denied involvement in the attack. A flare-up along the LoC in January, in which two Indian soldiers were killed, brought stop-start peace talks to a halt.

The low-level talks had only just resumed following a three-year hiatus sparked by the 2008 Mumbai attacks that claimed 166 lives.

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First Published: Aug 10 2013 | 1:00 AM IST

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