PAKISTAN CALLS BACK ITS INDIA ENVOY
Pakistan said on Monday it had recalled its high commissioner in India for consultations, a move that comes amid increasing tension between the two countries over a suicide bombing in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama that killed 40 troopers of a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy.
Sohail Mahmood was earlier summoned by India’s foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale, who lodged a strong protest over the killing of the CRPF soldiers by a 22-yearold Kashmiri man trained by the Jaish-e-Mohammed. Pakistan has denied India’s charge that it harbours the Masood Azhar-led terrorist group that claimed responsibility for the attack.
Pakistan foreign office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal tweeted on Monday: “We have called back our High Commissioner in India for consultations. He left New Delhi this morning.”
It wasn’t immediately clear when Faisal would return to India. India recalled its ambassador to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria last week to discuss relations with the neighbour after the Pulwama attack, which prompted the government to say that strong action will be taken against the perpetrators. Thursday’s attack triggered widespread anger across the country.
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.