intra Kashmir travel from Chakothi-Uri to resume from Sept 29

Intra-Kashmir travel from Chakothi-Uri crossing point towards the south of Muzaffarabad will resume on September 29, after remaining suspended for three consecutive weeks.

However, of the 161 AJK residents stranded across the Line of Control (LoC), repatriation of eleven members of a Karachi based Kashmiri family took place on Tuesday on emergency basis due to death of their kinsman here, sources told this scribe.

Sources said that the AJK and India-held Kashmir officials were scheduled to hold a meeting on Wednesday at Kaman Bridge, which marks the divide between the two parts of Kashmir, to settle issues for formal resumption of Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service from Monday (Sept 29). 

 The travel and trade from Chakothi-Uri point in Muzaffarabad division and Tetrinote-Chakan da Bagh point in Poonch division had been suspended on September 8, after floods and landslides wrecked havoc in both parts of the disputed Himalayan region.

However, while trade and travel resumed from Tetrinote-Chakan da Bagh point from September 15, it could not recommence from Chakothi-Uri point due to enormous infrastructure losses in Kashmir Valley in general and its capital Srinagar in particular.

Following the repatriation of 11 persons on Tuesday, the number of AJK residents, stranded across the LoC, scaled down to 150. On the other hand, 14 residents of held Kashmir are stuck up in AJK. 

All these people had crossed the LoC through Chakothi-Uri point.

Separately, from the Chilyana-Titwal crossing point in Neelum valley, crossing of 2 AJK and 5 held Kashmir residents would take place on Thursday next, sources said.

Intra-Kashmir travel via Chilyana-Titwal takes place once in a fortnight on Thursdays.

Also on Tuesday, 14 trucks from AJK and 9 trucks from India-held Kashmir had lined up along the Kaman Bridge to ferry intra-Kashmir trade items to the opposite sides.

However, they could not ply across the bridge reportedly due to some internal problem on the Indian side, sources said.

The crossing of trucks would now take place on Wednesday.

It may be recalled that on Monday (Sept 22), 33 passengers - 24 returning residents of AJK and 9 fresh travellers from AJK – had travelled across the LoC from the Tetrinote crossing point.

……. Tariq Naqash