They crossed the heavily-militarised Line of Control through one of the crossings that has been opened to aid relief efforts for thousands of villagers after the devastating quake.

The group had travelled to the Pakistani zone on a trans-border bus launched this year as part of a slow-moving peace process between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan and were stranded there by the quake.

Housewife Manisha Begum said six of her relatives had died in the earthquake on the Pakistani side of the Himalayan region.

"I am glad to be back," she said on reaching Indian Kashmir soil. "It was not a good visit. I am only bringing bad and sorrowful memories with me."

Indian army spokesman Vijay Batra told AFP that "around two dozen stranded passengers have crossed into our side. They are being sent home."

Nineteen more remained stuck in Pakistan, he added.

The passengers crossed using a small track at Kaman Post, 117 kilometers (72 miles) northwest of Indian Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar. The track had replaced a road destroyed by the quake.

"Thirty of our family members died in Pakistani Kashmir," said 70-year-old Gulab Jan who went in August to the Pakistani zone to meet her brother.

"Since the earthquake, it has been mourning in every house there," said Jan. The October 8 quake killed more than 73,000 people in Pakistan and its part of Kashmir and 1,300 people in Indian Kashmir.

Jan had an emotional reunion with her grandson Mohammed Irfan who was working as porter on the border. "I'm happy to see him," she said, hugging him tightly.

Indian foreign ministry official L. Sree Ramulu, who issues permits for people wanting to cross the de facto border dividing the region between India and Pakistan, said no one else from the Pakistani side would be crossing Thursday.

The neighbours agreed to open five crossing points to aid humanitarian efforts following the quake. But the two countries have yet to allow Kashmiris to traverse the frontier to help relatives and friends on the other side.

Kalu Din, 80, said he was the only person who survived the quake at the house of his brother in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir.

"I was the only lucky one. Everyone else died including my brother, Jamal-u-din, whom I'd gone to meet," said Din, tears rolling down his creased face.

Indian officials say lists of people wishing to cross still have to be approved and no date has been announced for civilians to start crossing over.

Pakistani police used tear gas to hold back villagers who wanted to cross the frontier when the first crossing opened more than a week ago. The delays in allowing civilians to cross have angered Kashmiris on both sides.

Both countries, which fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, are vetting names of those seeking to travel to the other side.

India, battling a deadly 16-year insurgency against its rule in its zone of Kashmir, is anxious to stop insurgents slipping into its territory under the guise of visiting relatives.

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