No Karvan-e-Aman bus between Srinagar-PoK

SRINAGAR :  The Karvan-e-Aman bus, operating between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK), has been suspended today in view of Eid-ul-Azha, official sources said here.
They said a message was received from PoK that in view of the Eid festival, there will no bus service today.
The passengers, who were scheduled to travel in the bus, have been informed in advance about the cancellation of the service. However, they will be adjusted in the next bus, the sources said.
Meanwhile, 25 PoK guests who had arrived here in the last bus on August 28 celebrated the festival with their relatives, separated in 1947 due to partition.
The bus service, a major Confidence Building Measure (CBM), was taken in 2005 by India and Pakistan to allow divided families to meet each other.
However, only permanent residents on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) are allowed to travel in the bus only after their names are cleared by the intelligence agencies of both the countries.
So far, thousands of divided families have met each other since the bus operated on April 7, 2005 despite opposition by the militant groups. Barring hardline Hurriyat Conference (HC) Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) chief Shabir Ahmad Shah almost all separatists leaders have travelled in the peace bus. (AGENCIES)