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.