Children to Get Shots in Kashmir

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan — Health authorities launched a two-week campaign Saturday to immunize 800,000 children in the Kashmir region to prevent infectious disease from thriving in the crowded tent camps for people displaced by last month’s earthquake.

The campaign aims to vaccinate children up to age 15 against measles, polio, diphtheria and tetanus. Shots will include vitamin A, which can reduce by up to 50% the mortality rate from respiratory illnesses expected to be rife during the winter, said Dr. Edward Hoekstra, a senior health advisor for UNICEF.

In other another development Saturday, Pakistan and India opened a third crossing through their disputed Kashmir frontier. But it involved no crossings by Kashmiri residents, just a ceremonial swap of aid as in the previous two openings.

At the footbridge across the Neelum River between Chiliana on the Pakistani side and Tithwal on the Indian side, tents, blankets, tools and clothing were given first by one side and then by the other.

The United Nations wants the frontier opened to trucks, saying it could save thousands of lives in Pakistani Kashmir. But neither side has agreed to this.

India has long accused Pakistan of allowing Kashmiri militants -- who are fighting for the region’s independence or merger with Pakistan -- to train on Pakistani soil. New Delhi says the militants regularly cross into India’s Jammu and Kashmir state, with at least the tacit approval of Pakistani troops. Islamabad denies this.

India told Pakistan that violence in Jammu and Kashmir has not abated since the Oct. 8 quake, and that there was no question of pulling back troops.