INDIA: In a rare gesture of camaraderie, Indian soldiers for the first time crossed the de facto border dividing the northern disputed Kashmir province yesterday to help the rival Pakistani military repair one of its bunkers destroyed in the weekend earthquake.
An Indian army spokesman said 11 soldiers walked unarmed across the disputed line of control at Uri, 50 miles west of Indian-administered Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar, and for several hours worked alongside Pakistani troops helping them reconstruct their demolished bunker.
The Pakistani bunker the Indians helped rebuild was from where they were raked almost daily with machine gun and mortar fire, before the 2003 cease-fire.
The India and Pakistani border-posts at Uri were heavily mined and fortified until the start of the fortnightly bus service in April between the two sides of the disputed principality.
"It [ the repair work] was done at the local level after the Pakistanis walked across and asked for our help which we had no problem giving," the Indian army spokesman said.
At the weekend, an Indian soldier who accidentally strayed across the border was handed back to his unit by the Pakistanis.
Analysts said such gestures of help between the two militaries could have wider political and diplomatic ramifications be- tween the nuclear-armed rivals in the ongoing 21-month long bilateral peace talks.