Youth Congress members protest in front of the bus. (PTI)
The members of the Youth Congress, protesting against Tuesday's Poonch attack in which five Indian soldiers were killed, today stopped the Delhi-Lahore bus near Amritsar in Punjab.
The incident happened in the Chheharta area, 20 km from the Attari border. Around 100 protesters, headed by their state unit president Vikram Chowdhary, stopped the bus, which was carrying 30 passengers, for around half-an-hour and demanded immediate stoppage of the bus service to the neighbouring country, police said.
Around 25 protesters were rounded up before police released the bus and helped it continue its onward journey. The leaders were later released.
At 2 am on Tuesday, an area domination patrol team of six Indian jawans was ambushed by heavily armed terrorists, backed by the Paksitan Army. Four jawans of the 21 Bihar regiment and one from the 14 Maratha Light Infantry regiment were killed in the attack. Havildar Kute of the 14 Maratha Light Infantry was the only survivor and he is currently in hospital.
Army Chief General Bikram Singh paid tribute to the martyrs in Jammu on Wednesday morning.
With the government under attack from the Opposition for its response to the deadly ambush, Defence Minister AK Antony on Thursday indicted Pakistan's army for the attack in a new statement to Parliament.
The minister said that "specialist troops" of the Pakistani Army crossed the Line of Control into Indian territory and killed the five Indians. "We all know nothing happens from Pakistan side of the Line of Control without support, assistance, facilitation and often, direct involvement of the Pakistan Army," the minister said.
In a strong warning, he said, "Our restraint should not be taken for granted; nor should the capacity of our Armed Forces..."
The Directors General of Military Operations of the two sides spoke on their hotline after the flare-up and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday chaired a high-level meeting with civilian and military officials to review the tensions.