Srinagar, January 19
Pakistan continued to hold 27 Indian truck drivers in detention at a trading facility on its side of the Line of Control (LoC) near north Kashmir’s Uri town for the third day. This comes amidst announcement by the two countries to start 24x7 trade activity at the Attari-Wagah border yesterday.

A senior official here said Pakistan was seeking the release of its truck driver arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir Police on Friday for smuggling contraband into the state.

The Indian drivers along with their trucks are being held at the Chakoti trading facility on the Pakistani side of the LoC, said senior government official Ghulam Ahmad Khwaja, who is the administrative in charge of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.

“They (Pakistani officials) are seeking the return of their arrested driver,” the official said. “They have informed their government and we have informed ours.”

The standoff began on Friday evening when contraband, believed to be 114-kg brown sugar worth about Rs 114 crore, was seized from a Pakistani truck at the Salamabad trading facility near Uri town.

The truck was part of a cross-LoC trade convoy entering Kashmir.

The standoff threatens to derail the confidence building measures initiated between the two countries in 2008 when it was decided to start several trading points along the LoC.

The official said 27 drivers are being held at Chakoti while 48 Pakistani drivers, whom Pakistan is refusing to accept without the arrested driver, are stuck at the Salamabad trading facility.

“They (Pakistani authorities) are adamant on the return of all 49 drivers,” said Khwaja, who was part of a state government delegation that met Pakistani officials on the zero-line at the LoC in a failed attempt to resolve the crisis. Khwaja said the Pakistani officials were also asking for the return of the seized contraband.