India, Pakistan resume barter trade at border
Print Edition
India and Pakistan resumed barter trade at a border crossing in Kashmir yesterday, an Indian official said, but tension in the region continued with a general strike and more fighting between Indian security forces and separatists.
Hostilities between the nuclear-armed neighbors escalated dramatically late last month after an Indian airstrike on what it said was a militant group that carried out a suicide attack in the Pulwama district of Indian-controlled Kashmir on February 14.
Both sides, which claim Kashmir in full but rule in part, said they downed enemy jets for the first time in decades, and firing along the border became a common sight, disrupting trade and travel.
Trade across the border, known as the Line of Control (LoC), was partially suspended after repeated mortar and small arms fire at Uri, a border town where the exchange of goods takes place.
But yesterday the route re-opened, said Riyaz Ahmad Malik, an official in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir. Thirty-five trucks left for Chakothi on the Pakistani side of the border with a similar number moving in the opposite direction, he said.
Trade across the LoC operates on a barter system, where no money is exchanged.
鈥淭his trade is heavily dependent on the trust factor,鈥 said Pawan Anand, president of a local trading association in Indian-administered Kashmir.
鈥淲e neither meet traders of Pakistan nor can check the quality of the imported goods until they reach us.鈥
Ashfaq Ahmad, a trader in Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Kashmir, said that he quotes rates on WhatsApp. 鈥淚 send cumin and chilli seeds to Pakistan and in return order prayer mats and cloth,鈥 he said. 鈥淚f there is any difference, it is adjusted in the next consignment. It is all trust-based trade but it is working.鈥
Indian traders export cumin, chilli pepper, cloth, cardamom, bananas, pomegranates, grapes and almonds. Prayer mats, carpets, cloth, oranges, mangos and herbs return from the Pakistani side.
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