Cross-LOC trade was opened between the two parts of J&K on 21 October 2008. When Indian-administered Kashmir feeds on a 90 per cent financial aid per annum from New Delhi and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) is very poorly developed and has nothing to export to India, what will the two sides trade in? It shall be disastrous for the latter with balance of payments going against it and while Indian Kashmir may get a route for its well-developed horticulture and handicrafts industries if this trade is taken beyond the boundaries of Pakistan to Central Asia as was the case pre-Independence, this remains unlikely.

Thus, this step is yet another ploy and diversionary tactic to dilute the 61 years of struggle of the Kashmiri people for their rights and for justice. While opening trade across the LOC may soothe the emotional bruises of Kashmiris, they are struggling for freedom and they are only being fooled by the politicians of India and Pakistan. There are no reasons for rejoicing. All the political parties in India have welcomed the decision after the historic peace bus the "Karva-e-Aman" aimed at rejoining of separated families in the year 2005. But, how many have been allowed to meet and how many applications remain in the queue waiting for government approval nobody knows.

Some 50,000 families of refugees from POK live in the Jammu region. These families were uprooted in the 1947 war after their 70,000 kith and kin were killed in a brutal genocide. These 1.4 million minority Hindus and Sikhs have languished in makeshift camps in the Jammu region since 1947 on the basis of promises that they would be repatriated as soon India vacated the Pakistan-held areas of J&K. Today, these families face discrimination compared to refugees living in other countries because India has not ratified the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its protocol of 1967; so these refugees from POK are denied international humanitarian aid, various human rights protections under UN refugee laws and refugee status. They are still called Displaced persons of 1947 even they are in their third generation. By contrast, the internally displaced Kahsmiri Pandit minority displaced in the year 1989 have received a financial package of about Rs.70 billion till date and many other benefits like reservations all over India in professional colleges and in government services. The POK refugees are even denied access to the 24 Assembly seats kept frozen in J&K Assembly seats kept for Pakistani Kashmir even though they belong to that area and have constitutional right over these seats.

With the start of cross-LOC trade by accepting Pakistani customs laws at the LOC, POK refugees smell a rat as it is equivalent to accepting Pakistani authority over POK and likewise on this side of the LOC for India. These refugees are the original inhabitants of POK who are not invited or included at any stage of the various eyewashes that take place in the form of peace talks and roundtables. Most of these refugees live in abject poverty and the younger generations are exposed to alcohol and drug addiction and crime due to lack of educational facilities, social security or employment opportunities.

Both India and Pakistan have looted the natural resources of J&K. The Indus Water Treaty of 1960 has robbed the people living on both sides of LOC of their rights over the use of three western rivers of the Himalayas as Pakistan is exploiting J&K waters exclusively as are major Indian public sector companies like the NHPC. Indian J&K imports electricity worth Rs.17 billion every year from Indian companies taking a major chunk out of its finances, while the huge Mangla dam in Mirpur caters to the needs of energy-starved Pakistan. The story is no different in the case of forest resources. The turmoil of 19 years in Kashmir has compounded the problems of Valley people, as its biggest industry, tourism, has been devastated.

The cross-LOC bus service has failed as people are denied travel documents and the number of people who have availed this facility is very low. As India is going to see parliamentary elections next year and Pakistan is plagued by various political and economic crises, the ploy of cross-LOC trade is very handy. The supporters of the right of self-determination or of merging Indian Kashmir with Pakistan get elite Z Plus security in India and other benefits but JKLF and other supporter of independence remain in hiding. An independent J&K by merging both the parts of J&K cannot be acceptable to India or Pakistan. The supporters of independence see the move of cross-LOC trade as a slow poison for their movement of over 60 years. POK refugees see this move as a permanent death knell for their basic human rights for which they have struggling for the last six decades. There is nothing to trade on either side of LOC as evident from the first small consignment of three pick up vans of vegetables, which mostly consisted of pumpkins. Then who is to gain? It will only satiate the political hunger of the politicians living outside of the two J&Ks.