New Delhi: Pakistan and India reopened the main border crossing in Kashmir to help survivors of earthquake, but the frontier stayed closed to vital relief trucks and people.
The crossing between Chakothi and Uri was one of five points along the Line of Control the India and Pakistan agreed on October to open to facilitate aid and allow divided families to meet.
Another LoC point in southern Kashmir opened on Monday but so far no Kashmiris have been allowed over, only small and almost identical batches of aid carried by foot.
"There are certain things in which aid is not kept in view but the concept. The concept is to restore confidence. It is a step towards the right direction. It is very necessary," said Pakistani commander Lieutenant-Colonel Mohammad Chiragh Haider.
Friendship Bridge was opened in April as the first crossing between the two sides of Kashmir in over half a century when a bus service was launched from Muzaffarabad to Srinagar.
The service, which took small numbers of Kashmiris across the Line of Control every two weeks, has been suspended since the bridge and roads were badly damaged by the October 8 quake.
All five crossing points were supposed to open on Monday, but India says not all are ready.
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Pakistan says India has insisted on paperwork, including name lists and security checks, which takes about 10 days to process, delaying family reunions until next week at the earliest.
On Monday, when the first LoC point opened, Pakistani police had to fire teargas to disperse Kashmiris from crossing.
The devastating earthquake killed at least 73,276 people in Pakistan and more than 1,300 in Kashmir.
However, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khursheed Mahmood Kasuri said that on Wednesday that latest estimates were of 86,000 deaths and over 100,000 injuries.
The UN, heading a big relief effort after the earthquake, says the Kashmir crossings should be opened rapidly.
Meanwhile, aid officials warn that with winter approaching, time is running out on the worst hit Pakistani side and thousands of survivors without shelter could die.
Funds are also running short while acute respiratory infections, diarrhea, dysentery and tetanus, are spreading.
A spokeswoman for the World Health Organisation said that 55 cases of life-threatening acute watery diarrhea, which could have been caused by cholera, had been diagnosed at one of many tent refugee camps in Muzaffarabad.
The UN says it has received funds and solid commitments worth only 15 per cent of the total $550 million it appealed for.
It has asked donors for $42.4 million for relief operations to the end of this month.
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