ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI, Sept 27: India and Pakistan met on Tuesday to agree details of new bus services between border cities and discuss an increase in flights as a part of a peace process, officials in both countries said.
One set of talks was held at a hotel in New Delhi on the “operationalization of these two bus links — Lahore-Amritsar and Amritsar-Nankana Sahib,” an Indian foreign ministry spokesman said.
The India delegation is headed by Dilip Sinha, joint secretary at the foreign ministry, while Mohammad Abbas, additional secretary in the Ministry of Communications, is leading the Pakistan side for the two-day meeting.
The two countries agreed in May in Islamabad to run buses between Amritsar and Lahore, but left technical details to be decided at a second round of talks.
They also agreed in principle to run a second bus service between Amritsar and Nankana Sahib near Lahore.
Simultaneously, Pakistani and Indian aviation officials began talks in Rawalpindi to increase the number of flights and improve passenger services, a defence ministry official told AFP.
The Indian side is led by the director general of Indian ministry of civil aviation Satendra Singh, while Mohammad Ashraf Chaudhry, additional secretary of Pakistan’s defence ministry is leading his side.
Air links between the two countries were severed after India blamed Pakistan-based militants for a December 2001 attack on its parliament that brought the nuclear-armed neighbours to the brink of war.
Under a series of fence-mending moves since April 2003, the two sides agreed on December 1, 2003 to restart air services and the first commercial flight from New Delhi landed in Lahore on January 9 last year.
The start of a bus service between their respective regions of disputed Kashmir in April was hailed as a major breakthrough. It is opposed by some groups as well as freedom fighters by Islamic rebels who have been fighting Indian rule in the disputed region since 1989.—AFP
