This white-painted bridge connects and divides a people separated by history. A few years ago, artillery and machine guns boomed here. The guns have fallen silent now. It is the season of peace at Kaman Bridge. And Kashmiri poets now want to do their bit to see that this season lasts.

Sabrang and Kabar, two cultural groups from North Kashmir, J&K Cultural Academy, the state government’s Information department and Radio Kashmir have come together to hold a multi-lingual Mushaira (poetry symposium) at Kaman Bridge on July 28 to send a “message of peace across the border”. About 30 poets have been invited and every poet, organisers said, is eager to participate.

“To spread the message of peace and love, we are holding a multi-lingual Mushaira near the LoC in Uri,” secretary, J&K Cultural Academy Zaffar Iqbal Manhas told The Indian Express. “It will be the first such gathering at Kaman, and if successful, another big event will be organised at the same place.”

After the 2003 ceasefire agreement between Indian and Pakistan stilled guns on both sides of the LoC, Kaman Bridge was opened, and named as Aman Setu (the bridge of peace), in 2005 to connect people of the divided Kashmir. A cross-LoC bus service, Carvan-e-Aman (the peace caravan), was also started between

Srinagar and Muzzafarabad. Now trade trucks also ply on Kaman bridge.

Though, the Mumbai attacks strained the Indo-Pak relations, peace endured at the LoC. The Mushaira organisers now want to “cement it”. “The day Kaman Bridge was opened after years of animosity between the two countries, I decided to organise a Mushiara at the Kaman for sake of cementing bonds of friendship,” said Nazar Boneyari, head of Sabrang Cultural Organisation and a renowned poet himself.

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