27 cross sides via peace bus

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

“As many as 13 returnees also crossed sides at Kaman Post,” official sources told UNI this evening.
The bus service was operational despite tense situation in the valley following strike and ‘Headquarters of 15 Corps challo’ called by Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) against the killing of seven civilians in clashes with security forces on Saturday.

They said ten residents of PoK, including four women and two children, arrived at Kaman Post after crossing the Aman Setu, peace bridge, on foot to meet their relatives, separated in 1947 due to partition.

Three Kashmiri residents, who had gone to PoK in a previous bus, returned here. These included a woman.

“Four Kashmiris crossed over to the other side of the LoC to meet their relatives while 10 PoK residents, 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.