85 persons travel to-and-fro on Poonch-Rawalakot cross-LoC bus service

Jammu, Dec 18 (IANS) The cross Line of Control (LoC) bus service between Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch and Rawalakot in Pakistan-administered Kashmir carried 85 passengers across the divided state, officials said.

Officials at the Chakan Da Bagh trade and travel facilitation centre in Poonch said the passengers included 51 residents of Pakistani-administered Kashmir who went back after meeting their relatives here and 20 residents of J&K went across to meet the members of their divided families.

From Rawalakot, 13 residents of Pakistani-administered Kashmir came as well as one resident of Jammu and Kashmir also returned after visiting his relatives on the Pakistan side of the LoC, the officials said.

Due to frequent ceasefire violations by Pakistan Army on the LoC, the bus service had remained suspended for nearly four months till November 6 this year when it was resumed.

The cross-LoC bus service was started between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad on April 7, 2005 when the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh flagged it off from Srinagar, while the Poonch-Rawalakot service was started on June 20, 2006.

The cross-LoC bus service has been a major confidence building measure between India and Pakistan to defuse tensions between the two countries by allowing members of divided families living across the LoC re-unite with each other.

(This story has not been edited by Social News XYZ staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)