While Pakistan restored the Samjhauta Express train services between Lahore and Delhi, the neighbouring country refused to open the Rah-e-Milan Gate at Poonch on Monday, forcing the weekly cross-LoC (Line of Control) Rawalakot bus service to return without crossing over to India, reports media.
The weekly service was earlier suspended following escalating tensions between the two nations after the Pulwama terror attack on 14 February in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed. But it was subsequently resumed.
The tension between the two nations, however, escalated following the Indian Air Force’s attacks on Jaish-e-Mohammed’s training camp at Balakot in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on 26 February. A day later, on 27 February, Pakistani fighter jets had violated Indian air space in Nowshera sector of Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district. During a dogfight with Pakistan Air Force (PAF), Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman had shot down a Pakistani F-16 before he was downed and captured by Pakistan Army personnel. Abhinandan was later handed over to Indian authorities on 1 March at the Wagah-Attari border.
The service was first started on the 170-kilometre-long Srinagar-Muzaffarabad route in Kashmir on 7 April, 2005 and billed as one of the biggest confidence-building measures.
The Poonch-Rawalakot route in the Jammu region was started on 20 June, 2006 to facilitate easier trade and travel between the divided families of Jammu and Kashmir and PoK.
The Poonch-Rawalakot service ferries passengers from Poonch town to the Chakan-Da-Bagh crossing on the Rah-e-Milan, a 10 km stretch of road.
The bus service had been suspended several times in the past too. In 2017, the facility remained suspended for nearly 17 weeks due to heavy firing and shelling from the Pakistani side. About 119 passengers from both sides were left stranded in Poonch and PoK at that time.
Agencies
