Kartarpur effect: Resume cross LOC bus service, say Uri residents
URI: In June Imitiaz Ahmad, 31, took wedding vows in absence of his eldest relative, Mohammad Younis Khawaja, 82, who lives in Muzaffarabad of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK). He couldn’t attend the marriage ceremony as the weekly cross-loc bus service was suspended after the Pulwama attack in March this year.
Similar is the fate of over a thousand families which were once connected through the bus service called Karwan-e-aman from Srinagar to Muzaffarabad, covering a distance of 170km. In the backdrop of opening of the Kartarpur corridor in Punjab, many families are demanding resumption of the bus service.
“Since the suspension of crossborder bus services, I have not been able to meet my family,” said 32-year old Sabiya Younis, who hails from Muzaffarabad and is married in Garkote village of Uri since 2007.
“Meeting my parents is now a long-lost dream. I used to talk to my father through video calling but after August 5, internet services were suspended in Kashmir,” she said.
Sabiya’s husband, Ishtiyaq Ahmad, 40, said the government must think about resuming the bus services as it is the life-line of the divided families. “When the prime ministers of both countries can open the Kartarpur corridor then why this important route has been kept shut for so many months,” he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be inaugurating the Kartarpur corridor and the passenger terminal building on November 9 at Dera Baba Nanak.
Aatullah Handoo, 70, a resident of Uri, is distressed as he will not be able to attend the wedding of one of his close relatives that is scheduled on November 16 in Haveli tehsil of Bhaag district in Pakistan. “I and my wife had planned everything but now it seems that the idea of visiting the place is not practical. We are hopeless and unsure if the government will find a solution to this problem or not,” he said.
Handoo said, “My close cousin who was living in Muzaffarabad also passed away last month and we couldn’t attend his funeral.”
He said his aunts and cousins are settled in POK since 1947. “I visited Muzaffarabad in 2006. After that, I have never visited again. I had applied for the travel visa but relations between India and Pakistan deteriorated this year leading to the cancellation of visa,” Handoo said.
Before partition, the Uri tehsil was a part of Muzaffarabad district, which is now in POK. Many families migrated to Muzaffarabad in 1947 while some of them migrated in 1965 and 1989.
Abdul Gani Banday, 62, a resident of Nambla village, whose house is located just a few kilometres away from the Line of Control (LOC), said it was in 2017 when his aunts visited him for the last time from other side of the border. “Now it has been a long time since we saw them,” he said.
The villages that have seen the maximum migration across the border over the years include Silikote, Gawalta, Kamalkote. These villages are near the border and most families migrate when there is increase in crossborder shelling.
Abdul Aziz Khawaja, a government employee and resident of Garkote village said he has been planning to arrange the wedding of his son with the daughter of a family friend who lives across the Line of Control.
“Now, we are confused and don’t know what should be done in such a situation,” he said.
Javaid Shafi, a doctor from Uri whose younger brother is married in POK said, “This was the shortest route to reach Pakistan to meet relatives. The procedure of applying visa was not complicated. Moreover, the stay for a month was enough to make most of the trip.”
Reyaz Ahmad Budoo, a resident of Garkote village, said the communication clampdown in Kashmir has added more woes in their lives. “My elder brother lives in Muzaffarabad and I have not talked to him since August 5 after the abrogation of Article 370. We don’t know anything about him and his family,” he said.
In 2018, as many as 799 guests from POK visited the Valley while 215 Kashmiri residents crossed over to the other side of the LOC.