Karvan-e-Aman bus leaves for PoK

Srinagar, May 21: Despite tense situation due to strike called by separatists, the weekly Karvan-e-Aman bus on Monday left here for Aman Post, the last Indian military post on this side of the Line of Control (LoC) in Uri sector to cross over to Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK), official sources said.

The bus left Bemina in Srinagar with two PoK returnees, including a woman, this morning, sources told TNN.

The bus has since reached Trade Facilitation Centre (TFC), Uri, where more passengers could board it before leaving for Aman Post, they added and said the exact number of those crossing over to PoK would be known in the afternoon.

Similarly, the number of people travelling from PoK to here will also be known in the evening, they said.

The bus, one of the major Confidence Building Measure (CBM), introduced on April 7, 2005 despite opposition by militants, has helped thousands of families divided due to partition in 1947 due to partition, to meet each other. However, only state subjects from both sides are eligible to travel in the bus on “ Travel Permits” instead of International passport provided their names are cleared by intelligence agencies from both the countries.

The Joint Resistance Leadership, comprising Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Omar Farooq and Mohammad Yaseen Malik has called for a general strike in the valley and 'Eidgah Chalo' to pay tributes to Mirwaiz Farooq and Lone.

Mirwaiz Farooq, father of moderate Hurriyat Conference(HC) chairman Mirwaiz Omar was assassinated by unidentified gunmen on May 21, 1990 in his Nigeen house. Later, more than 60 people were killed when security forces allegedly opened fire on funeral procession of Mirwaiz Farooq near Islamia College.

Later on this day in 2002, gunmen also murdered another separatist leader Abdul Gani Lone founder of Peoples Conference (PC) when he was leaving Eidgah after paying tributes to the Mirwaiz.

Abdul Gani Lone is father of Sajjad Gani Lone, minister in the coalition government from BJP quota and Bilal Gani Lone senior HC leader.