Poonch, Nov. 20: Tomorrow, Mohammad Aslam can finally realise his decades-old dream of walking across the frontier and meeting his brother on the Pakistani side. Only, he wishes the opportunity hadn’t come at such a terrible cost.

“Now the only consolation is that we would be visiting the other side to find out if my relatives have survived the quake. I have no clue about their fate,” the villager from Nangli said.

Come Monday, and people from both sides of divided Kashmir can cross the heavily militarised Line of Control (LoC) on foot at the Poonch-Rawalakot point. Yesterday, the ceasefire line was opened to civilians for the first time in 58 years ? ever since India and Pakistan were born ? at the Teetwal-Nauseri point.

Aslam, one of seven Indian Kashmiris making the foot journey tomorrow, will be crossing over with trepidation. “I am going alone. Let me see for myself what the situation is there before I take my family along to Kotli.”

The same mixed sentiment echoes across the region. “The earthquake was the wrath of God; but for many of us it is a blessing in disguise,” said retired government employee Nadir Shah of Teetwal, who plans to make the journey next week.

“For decades, it was just impossible to cross over this stream and meet your brother. Finally Kashmiris are walking across, but unfortunately at a very high cost.”

Two stranded Pakistani-Kashmiri passengers of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus, set to return on Monday, are obviously the most nervous of all. They know from media reports that the October 8 earthquake has left 73,000 dead in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and tens of thousands wounded and homeless.

Indian officials are making last-minute arrangements at Golpur, 9 km from the ceasefire line. “We are planning a farewell for those crossing the LoC,” said Poonch senior superintendent of police S.D.S Jamwal. “We want to make it a memorable event for them. After all, a new chapter in Indian history is being scripted.”

Many Kashmiris are willing to share his optimism.

“It is only the earthquake which led to the opening of this route,” said 45-year-old Asmat Begum, one of the 24 who crossed over at Teetwal yesterday.

“Though it brought death and destruction, it has done something amazing to this region. We are now able to meet relatives we have never seen before.”

This craving to cross the frontier, pent-up in Kashmiri hearts for decades, had led to severe embarrassment for Pakistan on November 7, when the two countries opened the Chakan da Bagh-Titrinote point to relief trucks but not civilians.

Hundreds from the Pakistani side had rushed towards the LoC, desperate to enter India, prompting their country’s police to fire in the air.