When the point on the LoC at Kaman Post was reopened today, the euphoria when it was opened—much before the quake—for the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus was missing. It was opened for flow of relief goods and allowing people to meet relatives across the border in the quake-hit region. But the crowd was absent in contrast to the April-7 opening of the point for the bus service to PoK. The few present today had no idea when people will arrive to cross the LoC. ‘‘We have no information on when people are going to the other side,’’ said Baramulla Deputy Commissioner N K Verma supervising the opening of the point. Pointing at relief materials being set to the other side, including 350 blankets, 100 tarpaulins, and 50 tents besides food packets, he added, ‘‘We are now preoccupied with sending the aid.’’ Shafiq Ahmad Qiyani, the Relief Camp Commander from PoK who received the goods did not know when people will be allowed to cross the LoC. ‘‘We came here (Kaman) with the knowledge that people are not coming,’’ he said.This was not what Dr Sajad Shafi, present in connection with his government job, had wanted. He could not meet cousin Zulfikar Ali, a Muzaffarabad-based BBC correspondent covering the event on the other side. ‘‘We waved at each other and smiled. But we could not talk or hug,’’ he said. Muhammad Irfan, a porter on the Indian side, has no news of his grandmother who had gone to PoK in September to meet her brother. His colleague Muhammad Muneer, whose son was killed in the quake, is desperate about news of his uncle’s family at Chakothi in PoK. On the other side, porter Shafqat wanted to know about his relatives on this side. He said in Chakothi, his town, around 250 people had died.The quake has snapped Aman Setu, the symbol of the Indo-Pak peace process, into two.
