Small step for Mufti, giant leap for Indo-Pak ties

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">URI: In times of hostility, it would perhaps have been a fatal step. But on Sunday, it vouched for the change in relations between the two neighbours. Just 50 yards away from Pakistani Army and workers, stood J&K chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, on a footbridge that shook under his weight. <br /><br />No CM of Jammu and Kashmir had dared the act in the last five decades.Nobody walked on this road in the last 57 years because it was mined and relations between India and Pakistan were strained," the chief minister said as he stepped onto the footbridge that connects Kashmir and PoK at the command post (LoC), 102 km north-west of Srinagar. <br /><br />The 200-feet-long bridge is essentially a hanging wood-bridge, with two of its spans under Indian control and one under the Pakistani Army. For now, travellers from Srinagar to Muzaffarabad will have to get down at the footbridge and board a bus on the Pakistani side. Eventually, the footbridge will be replaced by a concrete one. <br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal">"I came here to review the progress of the work on the Srinagar/Uri-Muzzafarabad road which will open on April 7," Mufti, who was accompanied by officials and two cabinet ministers, said. In the backdrop of noisy bulldozers, cranes and road-rollers in harness on both sides of the zero line, the chief minister visibly puffed with pride when he said, Kashmir, which had become the bone of contention between India and Pakistan will now become the bridge of peace between the two." He assured reporters, the work will be completed by March 31." <br /><br />On the Pakistani side, across the Kalayan-da-Khasa <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">naala</span> over which hangs the footbridge, almost a 1,000 workers and engineers were at work in Pahal village, even as civilians waved at reporters on the Indian side. From the LoC towards Urusoo, the last village of Uri sector in Baramulla, there is a 3-km stretch of road badly in need of repairs. The Srinagar-Uri road also bears symptoms of the strained relationship between India and Pakistan in the past, with relics like Bofors guns dotting its surface. <br /><br />The supervisor of the construction work Mohammad Ashraf told the <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Times of India </span>that the government was constructing a waiting hall, a gazebo, duty room and a hotel along the road. The workers were also seen carrying hoardings and boards that read: Tomorrow''s children will inherit great treasures. The greatest among them could be peace."</div> </div>