MS Nazki
Poonch, March 4 :Three Pakistan-administered Kashmir (PaK) residents who had arrived here last month to meet their relatives via the cross-LoC Rawalakote-Poonch bus service (Rah-e-Milan) were forced to extend their stay as the Chakan-da-Bagh crossing point gate was closed on Monday, officials said.
“ We waited an hour from 11 am to 12 pm at the Chakan-da-Bagh crossing point but there was no one from the other side present there to open the gate,” Designated authority Chakan-da-Bagh crossing point Jahanagir Khan told.
As a result, the three PaK-bound passengers of Rah-e-Milan bus service were forced to return and extend their stay at their relatives’ places, Khan said.
Billed as a “confidence building measure” by India and Pakistan, the cross-Line of Control bus service was started on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad route on April 7, 2005 and the Poonch-Rawalakot route on June 20, 2006, to facilitate easier trade and travel between the two divided parts of Jammu and Kashmir.
The bus service has been intermittently affected owing to heightened tensions between the two countries following the February 14 suicide bombing attack on CRPF in Pulwama district of south Kashmir. (GNS)