Delhi-Lahore bus to stop at Wagah now

AMRITSAR: The fear of terror strikes has overshadowed the harbingers of peace - Sada-e Sarhad and Dosti buses plying between Delhi and Lahore. The Pakistan government has decided to restrict the movement of the buses up to the Wagah border in Pakistan instead of going up to Lahore.
Similarly, the Punj Aab buses plying between Amritsar and Lahore and Amritsar and Nanakana Sahib have also been restricted up to Wagah.
This is for the first time since inauguration of the Delhi-Lahore service that the buses connecting divided families between the two countries have been restricted. Earlier, the bus service remained suspended from December 31, 2001 to July 11, 2003 following the terror attack on Parliament. The first bus for Lahore had left Delhi on March 16, 1999.
"Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) had written a letter to Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) about the last stop of the Dosti Bus being Wagah and similarly India's Sada-e-Sarhad would travel up to Wagah and depart from there," said in charge of Ambedkar Stadium Bus Terminal at Delhi, R P Singh. Pakistan government had made arrangements to halt the buses in a motel at Wagah.
The Pakistan government has taken the decision after two recent terror strikes - the November 2 suicide bombing at Wagah that left more than 60 people dead and the December 16 attack on an army school in Peshawar that left 150 people, mostly children, dead.
In-charge of the Amritsar International Bus Terminal, Vijayvinder Singh, said the Indian bus would drop passengers at Wagah from where they had to make their own arrangements to travel to Lahore and Nanakana Sahib.
The Amritsar-Lahore service was started on January 24, 2006 while the Amritsar-Nankana Sahib service had begun on March 24 that year.