6 guests arrive via peace bus

SRINAGAR: Only six fresh guests from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) arrived here on Monday while a Kashmiri resident crossed over to the other side of the Line of Control (LoC) in the weekly Karvan-e-Aman bus, operating between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad.

On November 26, there were no fresh travelers from either side of LoC though seven PoK residents returned to their homes after completing their stay here in the weekly bus.

“As many as two returnees also crossed sides at Kaman Post,” official sources told this evening.
They said six residents of PoK, including three women, arrived at Kaman Post after crossing the Aman Setu, peace bridge, on foot to meet their relatives, separated in 1947 due to partition.

Meanwhile, one Kashmiri resident, who had gone to PoK in a previous bus, returned here.

“One Kashmiri crossed over to the other side of the LoC to meet their relatives while a PoK resident, who had arrived here in a previous bus, returned to his homes after completing his stay here,” they added.

The intercross-LoC bus service was one of the major Confidence Building Measures (CBM) taken by India and Pakistan, after both the countries agreed for a ceasefire on LoC and the International Border in Jammu and Kashmir, in 2003.

The peace bus service has been operating, despite repeated attempts by the militants to sneak into this side from PoK after the higher reaches close due to snowfall for winter months. The bus has since helped thousands of divided families to meet each other.

However, only state subjects from both the sides are eligible to travel in the bus, after their names are cleared by the intelligence agencies from both the sides.