Manmohan to flag off 1st trans-Kashmir bus

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Kashmir in April will be his third since he assumed office in May.

"The prime minister will be in (the Indian Kashmir summer capital) Srinagar to flag off the first bus on April 7," Singh's spokesman said.

The bus service is the first tangible result of 14 months of dialogue between the nuclear-armed neighbours who have fought three wars including two over Kashmir, which each hold in part but claim in full.

India and Pakistan agreed last month that Kashmiri residents would not need passports to cross the divided state by bus but would use permits issued by the civil administration after being cleared by police.

The bus service was suspended in 1947 after the first India-Pakistan war over Kashmir. The second was in 1965.

Indian Kashmir is in the grip of a 15-year-old insurgency that has so far left thousands dead.

India blames Pakistan for fomenting the insurgency in Kashmir which has left at least 40,000 dead according Indian estimates, though separatists put the toll at twice that number.

Pakistan denies supporting the rebels though it admits to extending moral, political and diplomatic support to the Kashmiris' freedom struggle.

Indian authorities last week said some 150 permits had been issued to applicants from Indian-Kashmir to travel by the bus linking Srinagar to Muzaffarabad, capital of the Pakistan-administered zone.

Of the 150 applicants, 60 will be short-listed for the first two trips -- the first on April 7 and the second a fortnight later -- an official said.