After the rooftop of the Trade Facilitation centre (TFC) was damaged in overnight mortar shelling by the Pakistan Army, the weekly cross loC peace bus service (Carvan-e-Aman) between Poonch and Rawalakot in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (Pok) was suspended from Chakan-da-Bagh in Poonch on Monday.
At least 14 passengers from POK were scheduled to return home and had even boarded the buses but when the Pakistani Army refused to throw open the gates at the crossing point the Indian authorities decided to suspend the bus service to ensure safety of PoK bound passengers.
Before the passengers could start their journey from Poonch tension was in the air in the wake of fresh exchange of heavy volume firing.
According to officials posted at TFC, Poonch, “The shelling by the Pakistan Army late sunday night damaged the roof top and portion of administrative block of Trade Facilitation Centre (TFC) and police barracks at Chakan-Da-Bagh.”
Custodian Trade Facilitation centre, Tanveer Ahmed told The Pioneer, “The bus service between Poonch-Rawalakote remained suspended on Monday following fresh exchange of firing in the Poonch sector”. He said earlier also TFC was hit by mortar splinters and we had moved a proposal to carry out repair work.
Now the administrative building has suffered huge damages during heavy mortar shelling. We will do the needful as per the instructions of our senior authorities and the State Government, he added.
He said more than 100 passengers from POK are camping at different places with their relatives in the region. “When the Pakistan Army will throw open the gates we will organise their travel to send them home safely,” he added.
Ever since the bus service between Poonch and Rawalakot through the Chakan-Da-Bagh crossing point was started in 2006 to enable the divided families of Jammu and Kashmir and PoK to re-connect the trade and travel route has seen many highs and lows.
On several occasions when hostilities were at its peak the trade and travel remained suspended for long durations but were soon resumed after the ties normalised. In January 2013 when Indian soldiers were beheaded in Mendhar the trade and travel remained suspended for three weeks. In March 2017 too the bus service and trade was suspended at the peak of loC tension.
For last several weeks ever since National Investigation Agency (NIA) is carrying out investigations to track down the 'hawala' money pumped by the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI Pakistan Army has been targeting TFC centre.