"The Wagah border had become his home, and everybody here was his family, " said one border guard, Asim.

BBC: Lahore roundabout sparks battle of identity in Pakistan

Only two visas could be obtained each year and the Wagah crossing would have to be made on foot.

BBC: India puts visa deal with Pakistani on hold

Apart from barter by Kashmiris and the odd trainload of cargo at Wagah, goods went via third-country ports, notably Dubai and Colombo.

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India was set to begin a landmark visa-on-arrival deal for Pakistani senior citizens at the Wagah crossing, but this has been put on hold.

BBC: India PM Manmohan Singh warns Pakistan on Kashmir

Shipments now get through Wagah in a few hours, he says, where before they languished in the heat, sometimes for more than a week.

ECONOMIST: India-Pakistan relations

Rajdeep Uppal, an Amritsar-based merchant who has operated across the border for 15 years, helped lead a four-year campaign for the new Wagah post.

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At the Wagah border checkpoint in Punjab, picnicking families gather to gape and wave to Pakistanis waving back from the other side of the barbed wire.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia

The visas would only be available at the Wagah land border crossing near Lahore, and would be issued every day between 10:00 IST (04:30 GMT) and 16:00 IST (11:30 GMT).

BBC: India puts visa deal with Pakistani on hold

Nachiketa walked across the Wagah checkpoint into India - on the same road where Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee rode in a bus to Pakistan last February in a gesture of friendship and peace.

CNN: NEWSMAKERS

With a distinctive white beard, for years he was regularly seen at Pakistan's Wagah border crossing with India holding a Pakistani flag and wearing colour-co-ordinated clothing as the famous ceremony was played out each day.

BBC: Lahore roundabout sparks battle of identity in Pakistan