This was the day in 1947 when the Instrument of Accession, integrating the State with India, separating parents from children, brothers from their sisters, and friends from their friends, was signed.

Hundreds of such families, settled here at Talab Khatikan, Bhaderwah and border district of Poonch are the worst sufferers of this invisible line that was demarcated soon after the signing of this treaty by Maharaja Hari Singh, the then ruler of the State.

During the early years after the Treaty, some of these divided families could still meet without much difficulty. However, with the onset of militancy, they even lost that chance as getting a visa became a dream.

Last year, Atal Behari Vajapyee's bus trip to Pakistan generated hope among these separated families, making themfeel that tension between the two countries would ease and once again they would be able to meet their kith and kin on the other side of the border. But all their hopes were shattered with the Kargil war.

``It was years of hard struggle before my wife got a visa to meet her sister Farida Malik, married there in Jhelum area in Pakistan Punjab. She had done a lot of shopping for the reunion. But all her hopes were shattered when, at the eleventh hour, her visa was cancelled,'' said Mir Abdul Gani, a retired forest officer living in Jammu.

Some of the families here at Talab Khatikan, in a bid to maintain links with their relatives in Pakistan, married their sons to girls from across the border. But, now these women find it difficult to cope with the separation from their parents as many of them have not been allowed to meet their parents in Pakistan. ``We hardly knew that crossing over to this side would mean we will have to sacrifice our parents forever. We have been running from pillar to post to get avisa so I can meet my mother, who is suffering from cancer, but in vain,'' said Nayaar, another bride from Pakistan.

Dr Khairaat Ahmad Ibn Rasa, a retired vice-chancellor of Lahore University now residing in Model Town, Lahore, left his hometown, Bhaderwah, in search of his beloved, who migrated to Pakistan in 1947 following communal tension here. Her parents refused to send her to India and Khairaat had no other option but to settle down there, away from his family.

Early this year, his elder brother died in Bhaderwah, but despite his best efforts Khairaat was not allowed to visit.

In the last letter received by his family here, he had mentioned his last wish. He wanted to come and die in his motherland and be buried beside his father and brother.

Khairaat could not reach his hometown even when his father died as he was stopped at the airport by Pakistani authorities. ``His father, a renowned poet of Kashmir, Abdul Qadoos Rasa Jawaidani, had been asking for his son on his deathbed. Shortly before hedied, he wrote a couplet in Kashmiri: Ye mag sorith jei fagnas manz agar su muain diladr yehie mie deede balhan (If he returns even once for a while, even the autumn will turn into spring),'' according to Shoab Ahamed, Khairaat's sister's son.

``This accession, instead of bringing together people, has led to the separation of people from their loved ones,'' says Abdul Kareem, a tailor in Jammu, whose sister is in Pakistan.