Harried passenger demand renaming of Poonch-Rawalakote bus service

Abhishek Aijaz Qazmi
Poonch, Jammu, April 11—Notwithstanding the hype surrounding the Poonch-Rawlakote bus service, the Indian passengers are harried lot once they cross the Zero point and reach the other side of the border in Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
The Indian passengers, board the bus from Degree College, Pooch and once they reach Zero point on the line of control, they are dropped off to cross over to PoK, where they are made to pass through Pak Immigrations and Customs.
Once through these formalities, the elated Indian visitors are happy to reach Pakistan occupied Kashmir but the reality sinks in only when they do not find any connecting service to reach Rawlakote town, a distance of 48 kilometres from the Customs and Immigration office.
Neither a government bus service, nor private vehicles are available to the Indian visitors to reach Rawlakote, said Mohd Din, a resident of Mendhar, who was on a visit to meet his family members across the border.
Critical of the manner in which the passengers are being treated, Mohd Din said, “The Poonch-Rawlakote bus service should be renamed Poonch-Zero point bus service”, adding once the passengers reach PoK they are left to the mercy of elements.
The travellers were also critical of the Indian government over its refusal to ease the communication facilities with PoK. The problems are compounded by the fact that people from this this side can not make phone calls across the border to their relatives, said Farooq Din, another passenger, who returned from PoK, after visiting relatives.
“Our relatives do not know when we are coming as we can not contact them, as such they are not able to come to pick us after crossing the border”.
Once the passengers reach Pakistan, there is no one to receive us and it is after a great trouble that private conveyance is arranged, he added.
The passengers, however, appreciated the transport arrangements made by J&K government, which has provided JKSRTC buses to ferry the passengers across the border.
Here it must be mentioned that the Poonch-Rawlakote bus service was flagged off by UPA chairperson, Sonia Gandhi alongwith Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee in on June 20 in 2005.
Launch of this bus service was a long pending demand from the locals of both sides as it drastically rescued the travel time. Earlier the people intending to visit the other side of Kashmir had to go from Muzaffarabad.