Confidence building is two-way traffic; it cannot be unilateral. It is the intention that matters not just expression of goodwill. Way back in 2005, the first cross LoC transportation between two parts of the State began to work. It is now eight year old phenomenon. Movement of men and material across the two identified points on the LoC, namely Salamabad in Uri sector and Chakan da Bagh in Poonch sector continued with intermittent hiccups owing to security matters. Firing across the LoC and escalation of tension during 2013 brought the transportation to a standstill for some time. However as talks between the two countries at high levels continued, trade and transportation at these two LoC crossing points was resumed. It appeared that barter trade would continue without hassles.
The essential objective of opening the LoC for trade and movement of people was to lend strong support to the idea of confidence building measures. Kashmir being the bone of contention between the two countries, there was sense in opening two crossing points in J&K. Many a time we have seen poignant scenes at the crossing when relatives met after a long gap of three or four or five decades. The human aspect surfaced on either side in its intensity. At the same time, genuine traders wanted to do good and respectable business overcoming many odds like absence of banking system or telephone system. It was also believed that with the passage of time trade relations would stabilize and more items would be added to the existing list which can be considered for trading. There was remarkable improvement in the overall trading business.
The ongoing stalemate caused by uncovering of a huge consignment of brown sugar worth 114 crore rupees in the international market in a truck coming from PoK has put sudden break in the smooth flow of trade. Soon after the news of confiscation of the truck carrying drugs was known, we had in these columns said that though the issues was very serious not only for us but for Pakistan also, yet the two sides should not try to make it complicated one and allow the bilateral trade get frozen. Unfortunately, what we were apprehensive of has actually happened and it is not in the interests of either of the two countries. We believe that Pakistani side is seeing the issue from tit-for-tat point of view while it is simply a legal issue. Carrying of prohibited narcotics is a crime in our country. Naturally when narcotics in such a large quantity hidden in the contents of the truck were recovered, the law came into force. The truck was seized, the driver was arrested for interrogation and after all these preliminaries of legal procedure were completed the case would go to a court of law for adjudication. If what has been done on our side of the line had happened on the other side of the line, Pakistani authorities would have followed the same procedure to deal with something that was prohibited by Pakistani laws. But Pakistanis have made a different issue out of it and they have detained about a dozen of our truck on their soil as a retaliatory measure. This cannot be justified. They can search the trucks and if there is any irregularity which they detect they can report back to their authorities for further action. Pakistani side has unfortunately precipitated the tension and created an issued that impinges upon the effort of building confidence between the two sides. This should not happen and reason should prevail. Taking arbitrary steps in a matter that has the sanction of the two Governments is something we do not expect from Pakistan.
We said in the beginning that goodwill must be supported by good intentions. If our dozen trucks are detained along with their drivers, this clearly indicates that there is lack of good will and also lack of confidence. What Pakistan should have done was to send an accredited team on spot to examine the seized truck interrogate the driver and know the facts about the criminal act of trading in narcotics. The matter would have been resolved on spot and without damaging relations between the two countries. That has not been done and against that Pakistanis is thinking of retaliatory measures that are absolutely uncalled for.
We would like to impress upon Pakistani authorities not to escalate the situation and try to douse the flames. Let the law of the land take its natural course. We would appeal them to allow our trucks freedom of movement because they have nothing to do with the incident. It is strongly recommended that the matter be handled coolly and without extraneous causes. We would also like that Indian authorities assure Pakistan that the law of the land will be allowed to take its natural course and nothing prejudicial to the people involved will be done. This we hope should help in cooling the situation and bringing relations to normalcy.
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