Travel drive makes way for Indo-Pakistani ties upgrade
Travel drive makes way for Indo-Pakistani ties upgrade
AMRITSAR, India (AP): Pakistani officials were greeted with
flowers and candy on Thursday as they crossed into India by a bus
that will soon bring ordinary people from both countries
together.
Tajul Islam Yousafzai, general manager of Pakistan's National
Highway Authority and a member of the 19-member bus delegation,
said the trip reminded him of the days the subcontinent was
linked by the Grand Truck Road -- once celebrated by Kipling --
from Kabul in what is now Afghanistan to Dhaka in what is now
Bangladesh.
Borders, wars and political rivalries now divide the region.
Yousafzai said the bus service which would begin early next
month would be the first in 50 years.
The passenger bus service between the Pakistani border city of
Lahore and the Indian capital of New Delhi is part of a campaign
to improve long-strained relations between two countries that
have fought three wars in the five decades since they gained
independence from Britain.
Yousafzai's heavily guarded trial run to New Delhi on Thursday
and a previous run in the opposite direction by Indian officials
were meant to work out any logistical problems.
Yousafzai dismissed threats to block bus service by extremists
on both sides of the border.
"We should not give importance to such elements," he told
reporters at the Indian border city of Amritsar en route to New
Delhi. "We should give importance to friendship between the
countries."
Some Muslim parties in Pakistan say any warming of relations
with India amounts to a sellout of Muslim militants waging a
bloody secessionist uprising in Indian-held Kashmir. Extremists
Hindu parties in India say there can be no improvement in ties
until Islamabad stops arming and training the Kashmiri
separatists - Pakistan says it provides them only moral support.
"The bus service will improve relations between the two
countries and in no way will damage the cause of Kashmiri freedom
fighters," said Imtiaz Saeed, managing director of the Pakistan
Tourism Development Corporation, before boarding the bus in
Lahore.
Yousafzai, Saeed, five crew members and 12 officers from
Pakistan's police, foreign affairs, defense and immigration
departments left Lahore in heavy fog early Thursday. After an
official welcome at the border, four Indian police officers
boarded the bus and sixteen others in their own jeeps formed a
convoy to escort it to New Delhi.
The division of a former British colony into India and
Pakistan divided families. Only diplomats from the two countries
can cross the land border in private vehicles. Round-trip air
tickets of about 6,000 rupees ($140) are too expensive for many
ordinary citizens, and the train trip is lengthened by extensive
customs and security checks at the border for 800 passengers.
Only 36 people will be able to travel by bus, which will mean
shorter lines at the border check posts. Buses are also expected
to make the trip more often than the twice-weekly trains.
The bus fare has been set at 600 rupees, 200 rupees more than
the train.