New Delhi, Apr 23: Ahead of Indo-Pak Home Secretary-level talks, Union Home Secretary R K Singh may travel to Jammu and Kashmir tomorrow to ascertain the problems faced by businessmen in cross-LoC trade.
According to official sources, Singh will be travelling to Kashmir first and visit Salamabad, Uri in north Kashmir district Baramulla to assess the difficulties of traders in the region besides working out the modalities for establishing banking relations for the businessmen.
He will also hold talks with the state authorities for having a telephone link between the two parts of Kashmir purely for encouraging the trading relations, which started in 2008, they said.
Later, he is likely to visit Jammu where he will have first-hand account about the trading in Chakan-da-Bagh at Poonch on Wednesday, the sources said.
The visit comes days after state Chief Minister Omar Abdullah raised the issue of problems faced by the business community in the state in the cross-LoC trade at the internal security conference chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Terming cross-LoC trade as a major confidence-building measure between India and Pakistan, Omar had said there was a need to further ease it so that its benefits trickle down to the trading partners.
“There is a need for restoration of telephonic links between Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-administered Kashmir (PaK) and putting in place a proper institutional arrangement by replacing the current barter system of trade which will also address the security concerns,” he had said.
Omar had requested the Home Ministry to take up the matter with the ministries concerned so that the trade can flourish in real terms.
The matter was likely to be raised at the proposed meeting of the Home Secretaries of India and Pakistan scheduled to be held in Islamabad next month.

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