Kashmir bus: supply of travel application forms continues

The supply of application forms to the enthusiast aspirants to aboard the scheduled April 7 Srinagar- Muzaffarabad bus for travel to occupied Jammu Kashmir, continued by the offices of the deputy commissioners of all seven districts in Azad Jammu Kashmir the second consecutive day on Tuesday. "Forms will be available till March 16, which is also the last date for submitting the application forms dully filled in by the applicants.
Deputy Commissioner Mirpur Ghulam Bashir Mughal told APP here on Tuesday that the application forms will be available to the aspirants during working hours at the offices of the deputy commissioners of Mirpur, Muzaffarabad, Kotli, Bagh, Bhimbher, Sudahanoti (Palandari) and Rawalkot.
About 1000 forms have reached in Mirpur D C office for onward disbursement among the needy seeking to aboard the Kashmir bus for the Indian-occupied territory of the disputed Himalayan state.
The DC said that the forms duly filled in by the applicants along with the domicile and state subject certificates shall have to be submitted in the concerned deputy commissioner's office by the evening of March 16.
He said that the filled application forms would later on be sent to the designate authority, the deputy commissioner Muzaffarabad, for further necessary proceeding.
Later the process of verification will start following which necessary permits would be issued to the verified applicants to enable them to travel through the Kashmir bus which is being plied from AJK's metropolis-Muzaffarabad.
It may be added that initially the bus will ply twice a month with at least 35 passengers aboard.
It may be added that thousands of the divided families from occupied Jammu Kashmir particularly from the areas of occupied Poonch, Rajouri, Maindher and Jammu City are settled in various parts of Mirpur division comprising the districts of Mirpur, Kotli and Bhimbher who are anxiously waiting for enjoying the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service to have the glimpses of their divided family members in occupied Jammu Kashmir after a long span of about six decades.
India and Pakistan had recently decided to revive the historic and natural Srinagar-Muzaffarabad route for the travel through a bus service through permit system between both sides of the line of control (LoC) in the wake of the ongoing confidence building measures between the two countries for the normalisation of their relations through the settlement of all outstanding issues including the core dispute of Kashmir through a composite dialogue.