Fire attack on Kashmir 'peace bus' centre

ISLAMIC militants yesterday stormed and set ablaze a heavily guarded complex sheltering passengers due to board the first "peace bus" service across Kashmir’s border.

Indian officials said coaches would roll out of the capitals of Indian and Pakistani-held Kashmir this morning as planned.

But with the raid coming after guerrilla groups opposed to peace moves threatened to turn the buses into "coffins", last night there was a real fear that further attacks could be attempted. The security forces decided the passengers had to be given protection after several received death threats.

Terrified people, including women and children, hurled themselves through ground floor windows as fire engulfed the building, flames leaping high into the air and thick black smoke blanketing the city centre. The two militant gunmen were killed, but police said all the passengers at the centre escaped unharmed.

Meanwhile in New Delhi it was announced that Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister, was expected to see the bus off at Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir.

It will be the first time since partition that a coach link has enabled ordinary Kashmiris to cross the border and visit ancestral homes. Ordinary people on both sides of the divide had been celebrating, with Indian Kashmiris even painting the streets green to welcome travellers from Pakistan.

"We should see that this process goes on at any cost," said Mehbooba Mufti, president of Indian Kashmir’s ruling People’s Democratic Party, after the attack. "This is hitting [the militants] below the belt, they don’t want it to happen."

Pakistan immediately condemned the attack. Within little more than half an hour, the building was destroyed.

In Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistani Kashmir, passengers said the violence would not scare them off their first and possibly their only chance to see relatives separated by years of war and hostility between India and Pakistan.

"I am not scared. I will definitely go if the bus goes," Nisar Ahmed Zakir said. "In war-like situations such incidents happen. But I will go."

The bus link along the 170km of largely mountain passes between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad, agreed in February, is the most significant development yet to emerge from a peace process that has stumbled along since the signing of a ceasefire between Indian and Pakistani forces in late 2003.

In both countries there is a feeling that greater contact between ordinary Kashmiris will add a new dynamic to negotiations, isolating the militants and pressuring politicians to move forward with talks.

"For the first time in 57 years, the people of Kashmir have a sense of pride and something to celebrate," said Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, the state’s chief minister. "The people have taken over. It’s their show."

After travelling to the border, 30 people from each bus will walk across the "line of control" and board the other for the trip into what was once home but has become enemy territory.

While the level of violence has dropped substantially, diplomats from both countries meet regularly, and strategic air and rail services have been re-opened. For Kashmiris, the chance to see children and parents again after so many years has awakened new hope for a brighter future.

The bridge over the frontier has been painted a neutral white, and village streets on the Indian side have been turned green, a holy colour in Islamic Pakistan. In Srinagar portraits of Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani president, have appeared along with a Hindi slogan which translates as "shortening distances, connecting hearts".

For the majority of Kashmiris the only problem with the bus link is the timetable, as it will only run once every 15 days.