Srinagar-Muzaffarabad Bus Service To Resume Next Week On Raksha Bandhan

New Delhi: The 'Karvan-e-Aman' bus service, which ran between Srinagar Jammu and Kashmir and Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, will resume next week on August 7 - the day of Raksha Bandhan festival - Jammu and Kashmir government has told the Ministry of Home Affairs.

"There may be some people who want celebrate the festival on both sides so it was decided to renew the bus service on that day," a senior ministry officer told NDTV.

The cross-Line of Control weekly bus service was suspended in May this year after a message was received from Pakistan that there is a holiday on account of 14th death anniversary of founding President of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir Sardar Mohammad Ibrahim Khan.

"Now both sides have decided mutually that the bus service will be resumed," added the officer. The bus service operates twice a week but due to tension at LoC, the number of people travelling has come down in last one year. 

The bus service was started on April 7, 2005 and it has been helped thousands of families, divided in 1947 due to partition, to meet each other after India and Pakistan agreed to allow travel of State subjects from both sides on travel permits, instead of international passport.

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The Ministry was also informed by the state government that cross-Line of Control trade would resume on August 8. Trade from both posts was suspended recently.

Trade was suspended on the Uri-Salamabad post on July 21 after over 60 kg of drugs were recovered from a truck at Trade Facilitation Centre (TFC) in Uri.

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On Poonch-Chakkan Da Bagh post the trade was suspended due to heavy shelling. The workers who were posted at TFC had refused to come to work due to which trade was suspended on that post.