Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will personally flag off the first bus to travel between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad in almost six decades when the service resumes next month. This will be Manmohan Singh's third visit to occupied Kashmir since he assumed office in May last. "The Prime Minister will be in Srinagar to flag off the first bus on April 7 to Muzaffarabad," Singh's spokesman said here on Saturday.
The bus service is the first tangible result of 14 months of dialogue between the nuclear-armed neighbours. India and Pakistan agreed last month that Kashmiri residents would not need passports to cross the divided state by bus but would use permits issued by the civil administration after being cleared by police.
The bus service was suspended in 1947 after the first India-Pakistan war over Kashmir.
Some 150 permits had been issued to applicants from Indian-occupied Kashmir to travel by the bus linking Srinagar to Muzaffarabad.
Of the 150 applicants, 60 will be short-listed for the first two trips -- the first on April 7 and the second a fortnight later -- an Indian official said.
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