‘UN monitors for Kashmir bus illogical demand’

JAMMU: Indian-Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed on Monday described a Pakistani proposal that the United Nations monitor a bus service linking the two zones of the divided Himalayan region as “illogical”.

Mr Sayeed was talking to reporters in Jammu, winter capital of Indian-administered Kashmir.

“There is no logic behind the suggestion of Islamabad that UN officials should man the check posts and the travellers could travel on UN documents,” he said. Last month India proposed a bus link linking Srinagar with Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, as part of a 12-point peace initiative that also included reviving severed sporting links. But Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar last week said such a service should be “controlled” by the UN, that UN personnel should man checkpoints on the disputed border and that bus passengers should carry UN documents. The Indian proposals were aimed at mending ties between New Delhi and Islamabad that had reached a low point following an attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001. —AFP

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