India, Pakistan Test New Bus Link

VOA News
December 11, 2005

India and Pakistan have begun a trial run of a bus service linking the Sikh holy city of Amritsar in India with the Pakistani city of Lahore.

Indian transport officials were on board the yellow bus as it left Amritsar Sunday for the 60-kilometer journey to Lahore. The bus crossed into Pakistan at Wagah.

A Pakistani bus will carry out a trial run to Amritsar on December 13, and the full twice-weekly passenger service between the two cities is expected to begin on December 23.

The bus link is part of efforts started two years ago to ease decades of hostility between India and Pakistan.

In early April, buses started running across divided Kashmir to reunite families, some of whom have been separated for almost 60 years.