Week after attack, cross-border bus service resumes

SRINAGAR: After remaining suspended for a week following the Pulwama terror attack, the weekly cross-loc bus service — Carvan-e-aman (procession of peace) — resumed operations in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district on Monday.

Officials said a total of 13 people availed the services — five returned to Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK) , and eight to reach Kashmir. Of the eight, they added, only one new passenger arrived in Kashmir.

Officials said a total of 13 people availed the services — five returned to Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK) , and eight to reach Kashmir. Of the eight, they added, only one new passenger arrived in Kashmir. “The service was resumed after a week on the instructions of top officials,’’ a senior officer in Uri said.

Earlier, a communique from the Union ministry of external affairs had ordered suspension of all cross-border travelling in view of the ongoing tension between India and Pakistan following the Pulwama terror attack on February 14, which killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel, they said.

The bus service was launched by the governments of India and Pakistan on April 7, 2005, to allow the relatives, living in the two parts of Kashmir and divided by the Line of Control (LOC), to visit each other. It allows residents to travel from Srinagar to Muzaffarabad and Poonch to Rawlakot once in a week on Monday.

The bus takes Muzaffarbadbound passengers to Uri where the passengers are allowed to walk to the other side from where another bus from POK side completes the journey.