India-PakistanRelationship: Chances of resumption of Karvan-e-Aman bus service bleak

Srinagar, Sep 30 (UNI) Chances of resumption of Karvan-e-Aman bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), has further diminished, as relations between India and Pakistan remain strained.

The weekly bus service and the cross-Line of Control (LoC) trade were suspended on March 4, badly hitting the states subjects from both sides, who were separated due to partition in 1947.

The service was resumed on April 7, 2005, after both India and Pakistan agreed to allow travel of divided families, to meet each other on Travel Permits, instead of International passports. However, the bus was suspended in March this year, following a request by the PoK that some repair work of Kaman post bridge was to be undertaken. Later, the service could not be restored because of strained relations between the two nations, due to the continued ceasefire violation by Pak troops at LoC and International Border (IB).

The bus has helped thousands of divided families to meet each other since it was introduced, despite opposition by militant organisations. However, all separatist leaders, barring chairman of Hurriyat Conference (HC) Syed Ali Shah Geelani, currently under house arrest, and president of Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) Shabir Ahmad Shah, travelled in the bus to PoK. Shah is also presently under detention in Delhis Tihar jail, in connection with terror funding.

Trade between the two sides also remained suspended after order by the Union Home Ministry that it was being used for terror funding. Over a dozen cross-LoC traders were questioned and some of them were detained by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).