India welcomes Pak offer of opening up LoC

India on Tuesday welcomed the offer by President Pervez Musharraf that Pakistan was willing to open the Line of Control for "any amount" of Kashmiris to join in quake relief work but said implemention of the proposal practically will have to be worked out.

"We have only seen news reports. If indeed this is what has been said, India welcomes the remarks," External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna told PTI reacting to Musharraf's proposal. He said the proposal was "...in line with India's advocacy of greater movement" across the LoC. Maintaining that India was "willing to facilitate the movement" across the LoC, Sarna said that, however, New Delhi would "...wait for a word from Pakistan about practical dimension of implementing this intention."

India has always been in favour of greater people-to-peolple contacts, he noted and pointed out that New Delhi has earlier proposed five meeting points for divided families along the LoC and other cross-LoC confidence building measures. Earlier, Musharraf said in Muzaffarabad that Pakistan was ready to open the LoC, allowing Indian Kashmiris to come and join aid efforts after the earthquake. "We will allow any amount of people coming across the Line of Control to meet their relatives and assist with the reconstruction effort," Musharraf told reporters on a visit to the ravaged Pakistan-occupied Kashmir capital of Muzaffarabad.

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