Cross-LoC trade stops

Traders in Kashmir and Poonch have suspended cross-border trade on the Uri-Muzaffarabad and Poonch-Rawalakot routes, along the state’s western border, for at least a week.

The suspension follows a ban on the profitable trade of moong dal by the Pakistani government. Traders from Jammu & Kashmir are also unhappy over the Indian government’s decision to ban import of garlic, raisins and pistachios from across the LoC.
Uri and Poonch are near the LoC in Jammu & Kashmir; Muzaffarabad and Rawalakot are in PoK.

Thousands of traders in Kashmir, mainly fruit growers, had threatened to march towards the LoC after the economic blockade of Kashmir valley during the Amaranth agitation in 2008, pushing the leadership into opening the LoC for trade.

But traders say the volume of trade has been far below expectation. In Rajouri and Poonch, traders have returned six trucks of moong dal from PoK in protest.

Moong dal is part of a list of 21 items, mostly low-priced goods, which traders from both sides of the border deal in, after getting a clearance from the two administrations in 2008.

The list includes fruits, vegetables, rugs and low-cost embroidery. But the trade has been “just a barter of goods, not trade in actual sense”, Nazir Ahmad Dar, president of the state’s chamber of commerce and industries, told HT, adding that the lack of infrastructure and communication and banking facilities was holding back trade.
(Inputs from Shyam Sood in Rajouri)