Pakistan restricts Dosti bus service up to Wagah

This is for second time that entry of the buses has been restricted by Pakistan. In 2009, when there was a terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, the movement of Indian buses was restricted up to Wagah.

This time, however, Pakistan has decided not to ply its own buses as well beyond Wagah. The country recently witnessed a terrorist attack on an Army school in Peshawar in which 145 people, including 132 children, were killed.

Lt Col (retd) Khalid Sarfaraz, Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation manager for the Dosti bus service, in a letter on January 1 to authorities in Delhi cited security reasons for restricting the movement of buses up to Wagah only. Raj Pal Singh, terminal in-charge for the Delhi-Lahore bus at Dr Ambedkar Terminal (Delhi Gate), told The Indian Express over phone that the letter was received on January1 and the new arrangement came into effect on January 2.

Sarfaraz also wrote to the roadways authorities in Amritsar, following which buses operating on Amritsar-Lahore-Nankana Sahib route have also been restricted. The buses on Amritsar-Lahore-Nankana Sahib route ply four times in a week.

While Raj Pal Singh said on an average the occupancy of the Delhi-Lahore bus was more than 70 per cent, an official at Amritsar said the occupancy in the buses between Amritsar-Lahore-Nankana Sahib was below 50 per cent on routine days.

The Delhi-Lahore bus service was officially launched in March 1999. The then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had travelled to Pakistan on the bus on its inaugural run in February 1999.  The bus service connecting Amritsar with Lahore and Nankana Sahib was started in year 2006.