India suspends Delhi-Lahore Bus Service | Fusion - WeRIndia

After the abrogation of Article 370 by the Indian government, the Pakistan government has taken several decisions to protest it.

Cancellation of Samjhauta Express, Thar Express and now the suspension of Sada-e-Sarhad are some of them.

On Thursday Pakistan announced that the services of Samjhauta Express have been cancelled. It is a bi-weekly train from Delhi to Lahore and vice versa. Pakistan also stated that those who had already booked the tickets in that train would be refunded the full amount without any deduction.

As Pakistan cancelled Samjhauta Express running between Lahore and Atari, India also cancelled the link express train running from Atari to Lahore.

After the cancellation of Samjhauta Express, Pakistan decided to suspend the Delhi-Lahore Sada-e-Sarhad bus service to discontinue the friendship.

Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) informed this decision to DTC on the phone on Saturday.

The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) on Monday also suspended the Delhi-Lahore bus service stating that it is unable to send the bus due to Pakistan’s cancellation of bus service.

Initially, a DTC bus was scheduled to leave for Lahore at 6:00 a.m. on Monday, but due to the decision of suspension of bus service, it did not leave.

The Sada-e-Sarhad bus service was started in February 1999 as a step to promote friendly relations between the two countries. But, later the services were suspended temporarily after the 2001 Parliament attack.

The services restarted in July 2003 and have been continued so far. However, very few are availing this bus service after the Pulwama terror attack.

Pakistan also suspended the services of Thar Express, the weekly passenger train that connects Khokhrapar in Pakistan with Munabao in Rajasthan.

The Pulwama attacks followed by Balakot surgical strike in February this year worsened the bilateral relations between India and Pakistan and now the situation reached to the worst yet.

Image credit: The India-Pakistan (Delhi- Lahore) bus rolls past image by shankar s. is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Image Reference: https://www.flickr.com/photos/shankaronline/26581215398