Poonch-Rawalakot bus service resumes: Indian media

ISLAMABAD: Indian media has claimed that Poonch-Rawalakot cross-Line of Control bus service resumed on Monday, a week after it was suspended as 46 stranded passengers, including 40 from Azad Kashmir, returning home, an Indian official said. The weekly service was suspended on August 19 after authorities in Azad Kashmir did not respond to a call from their Indian counterparts to let a bus get across the LoC, according to the official.

“The bus service resumed with 40 Azad Kashmir residents and six Indian citizens returning to their homes,” said District Development Commissioner, Poonch, Rahul Yadav.

The permits of two other Azad Kashmir residents, who had arrived in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch a week ahead of Eidul Azha to meet their relatives, is yet to expire, he said, adding that there was no fresh traveler from either side. The bus service, popularly known as ‘Paigham-e-Aman’, is on every Monday and it did not stop despite tension along the LoC in view of frequent ceasefire violations by India.

However, it was suspended last Monday, after officials said “we had sent a message to Azad Kashmir authorities for bus service today (August 19), but they did not respond”.

The relation between Pakistan and India is under strain following New Delhi’s move to annex IHK and splitting it early this month.

Billed as the biggest confidence building measure (CBM), the bus service was started on the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar route in Kashmir in April 2005 and the Rawlakot-Poonch route in the Jammu region in June 2006 to facilitate divided families on either side of the LoC to meet each other.

The trade, which works on the barter system, between the two parts of Kashmir started in October 2008. India announced suspension of the trade at two points - Salamabad of Baramulla in Kashmir and Chakkan-da-Bagh of Poonch in Jammu in April without assigning any reason. The Indian government has said the issue of reopening of the LoC trade would be revisited after a stricter regulatory and enforcement mechanism is worked out and put in place in consultation with various agencies.