SRINAGAR, Jan 30: The Karvan-e-Aman bus service, operating between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK), will resume from February 3 after remaining suspended for two weeks due to a drug trafficking row. The decision was taken during a meeting between representatives of PoK and Jammu and Kashmir at Kaman post on the Line of Control (LoC) in Uri sector of north Kashmir. Deputy Commissioner, Baramulla, Ghulam Mohammad Khawaja said the meeting was decided to resume the bus service from Monday, after it had remained suspended on January 20 and 27. He said the representatives decided to meet again on Tuesday or Wednesday to discuss resumption of trade between the two parts.
Mr Khawaja said the meeting could not reach any conclusion on trade.
“We are hopeful to resolve it very soon.” He further said that no breakthrough was achieved on the issue of return of drivers who are in PoK or here. The meeting, he said, was held in a very cordial atmosphere and both the sides were in favour of resumption of trade and travel.
This was the third meeting between the representatives of both sides since the drug row broke out.
The weekly bus service on January 20 was suspended after PoK authorities closed the gates on Kaman post, the last Indian military post on this side of the Line of Control (LoC), following
arrest of a PoK resident driver after 114 packets of brown sugar were recovered from his truck at Salamabad, Uri. Pakistani authorities were demanding handing over of driver, brown sugar and truck so that he could be prosecuted there. Bus and trade service remained suspended and Kashmiri drivers were holed up in PoK, while PoK drivers were stranded at Salamabad Uri.
The bus service, introduced on April 7, 2005, has helped thousands of families divided in 1947 to meet each other. However, cross LoC trade was resumed in 2008. (agencies)
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