Passengers board a Jammu and Kashmir state government bus at an outpost near Poonch. PHOTO: AFP
“We are assessing losses the traders suffered because they could not send perishable items across on time,” Shant Manu, secretary for industries and commerce in Indian-held Kashmir, told AFP.
Ismail Khan, the director-general of a government body that oversees trade and travel in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, confirmed that trade would resume Tuesday.
“We closed it because of direct firing from the Indian side on the road where the goods trucks were passing. Now the firing has stopped, we will resume it,” he said.
Officials said 64 passengers from Pakistan crossed the de facto border in Kashmir into India while 84 went in the other direction on the bus service from Poonch to Rawalakot.
The cross-border bus service from Poonch on the Indian side to Rawalakot on the Pakistan side began in 2005 to enable members of divided families in the region to meet each other. Another bus service that departs from the Uri sector of Indian-held Kashmir to the Pakistani side has been suspended because of heavy snowfall in the area.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 29th, 2013.
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