New Indo-Pak bus joins two Punjabs

Pakistani people watch Indian well-wishers (C) gather around the first bus of the service between Lahore and Amritsar as it enters the Indian Wagah Border Post yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

Drummers and dancers bade farewell to a Pakistani bus carrying 26 passengers, who included a leading folk singer and a dance troupe, as it left the eastern city of Lahore for Amritsar.

"This service is a step in right direction. Such steps will promote love and affection between the people of two countries," folk singer Reshma, who is popular on both sides of the frontier, said before boarding the bus. "I hope and pray that relations between Pakistan and India further improve."

Reshma plans to stay five weeks in India, giving performances in New Delhi and other towns.

A small group of well-wishers saw off the bus, sprinkling passengers with rose petals as they headed towards the green and white bus emblazoned with the slogan "Dosti" (Friendship) and flags of both countries.

Traditional Punjabi dancers and drummers were waiting on the Indian side to receive the bus at the Wagah crossing point.

"The bus journey will go a long way to improve people-to-people contact and restore confidence among people who share a common ethnic, cultural and social background," said S.K Sharma, a resident of Amritsar, the Sikh holy city.

A bus service between Lahore and Delhi resumed in July 2003, but this is the first direct link between the two sides of Punjab since Pakistan and India won independence from Britain in 1947.

The launch of the new bus service came two days after India and Pakistan made a fresh commitment to push forward their peace process, despite reiterating differences over ways to end their enmity over the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir.