On Tuesday, India and Pakistan have resumed barter trade at a border crossing in Kashmir, an Indian official said. However, tension in the contested region continued with a general strike and more fighting between Indian security forces and separatists.
Hostilities between these neighbors escalated late last month, after an Indian air strike on what it said was a militant group, responsible for an attack in the Pulwama district on Feb. 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 part-suspended after repeated mortar and small arms fire at Uri, a border town where the exchange of goods takes place.
But on Tuesday the route re-opened after firing in the region eased, 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. “This trade is heavily dependent on the trust factor,” said Pawan Anand, president of a local trading association in Indian-administered Kashmir. “We neither meet traders of Pakistan nor can check the quality of the imported goods until they reach us.”
Indian traders export cumin, chilli pepper, cloth, cardamom, bananas, pomegranate, grapes and almonds. Prayer mats, carpets, cloth, oranges, mangoes and herbs return from the Pakistani side.
