India suspends cross-loc trade, bus services to Pak-occupied-kashmir
SRINAGAR/JAMMU:INDIA on Monday suspended two bus services to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK) because of the volatile situation following the Pulwama terror attack that killed 40 CRPF troopers last week, senior government officials said.
One of the bus services is between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad via Uri and the other is between Poonch and Rawlakot. Both the buses ply once a week on Mondays. The decision was taken following a communication from the external affairs ministry.
“Trade facilitation officer Bhagwan Singh informed us that as per telephonic conversation with the passport officer, Srinagar, the bus service stands cancelled for today,” said Baseer-ulhaq, sub divisional magistrate of Uri in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district. There was no clarity on whether the service would remain suspended next week.
Deputy commissioner Poonch, Rahul Yadav, also confirmed that the bus service was suspended. “Due to the prevailing law and order situation (after the Pulwama attack), the weekly bus service and trade have been put on hold,” the DC said.
The Srinagar-muzaffarabad bus service was launched on April 7, 2005 and to allow the relatives, living in the two parts of Kashmir and divided by the LOC for decades, to visit each other on ‘travel permits’. The weekly bus service and trade via Chakan-dabagh in Poonch district and Rawalakot in POK was the brainchild of the then CM Mufti Mohammed Sayeed. The border trade on barter system takes place from Tuesday to Friday at Chakan-da-bagh in Poonch district and Salamabad in Uri district. “We have not yet received any communication about whether trade would go ahead on Tuesday,” SDM Baseerul-haq said.