Poonch: Demonstrating his claimed intentions by releasing Indian Prisoner of War (PoW) Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, Pakistan has blocked the gates for the weekly bus service between Poonch and Rawalakot, At a time when its Prime Minister Imran Khan is talking about regional peace. According to Source report, when the bus connecting the two towns in India and Pakistan reached the gates along the Line of Control (LoC) on Monday, the Pakistani authorities did not open the gates, thus leaving the divided Kashmiri families separated from their kin across the LoC.

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Syed Bukhari, Resident of Mirpur in PoK told "I was going back, went to the border, bought tickets but was told that the Pakistan authorities did not open the gate today, then we had to come back,". Two weeks ago, on February 18, the bus service was suspended by the Indian authorities. That, however, was immediately after the February 14 Pulwama terror attack which killed 40 CRPF personnel and was attributed to the tensions and unrest on both the sides of the LoC.

However, the bus service operates two buses- one between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad via Uri and another one between Poonch and Rawalakot. The buses ply once a week on Mondays and connect separated Kashmiri families across the LoC.  This suspension of bus services by Pakistan comes at a time when the Samjhauta Link Express services that were suspended by both the countries in light of the Indian Air Force (IAF) strikes at Balakot, resumed on Monday. "The Samjhauta Express has arrived at Attari. The train left from Old Delhi railway station yesterday as normal service resumed. The train had been suspended by both India and Pakistan after IAF strike in Pakistan,".

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The ties between the two countries have been severely fractured in light of the recent military exchanges in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attack on CRPF personnel.