Srinagar, Dec 3 (UNI) The Karvan-e-Aman cross-Line of Control (LoC) bus left summer capital, Srinagar, on Monday morning to cross over to Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, official sources said.
The bus, operating between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad, capital of PoK, left Bemina, here without any passenger, sources told UNI adding the weekly bus has since reached Trade Facilitation Centre (TFC), at Uri.
'We expect some passengers to board the bus at TFC before leaving for Kaman post, the last Indian military post on this side of the LoC,' they said, adding that the number of passengers travelling to other side of the border will be known in the afternoon. Similarly, passengers travelling from PoK to here will be known in the evening only.
Last week no fresh guest from here or PoK travelled in the bus, which was introduced on April 7, 2005 after India and Pakistan agreed to allow divided families to meet each other through this route first time after 1947. The bus has helped thousands of families, divided in 1947 due to partition, to meet each other.
However, only state subjects from both sides are eligible to travel in the cross-LoC bus on travel permits instead of International passports provided their names are cleared by intelligence agencies from both sides.
Before the bus was introduced, members of the divided families were travelling through Wagah border or Delhi by air to Pakistan before visiting PoK.
Barring Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Shabir Ahmad Shah, almost all separatists leaders, including Mirwaiz Moulvi Omar Farooq and Mohammad Yaseen Malik, have travelled in the bus to POK.
UNI BAS SB 1010