Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Sept 26: Fifty seven Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) nationals, who were trapped in Kashmir due to floods, and seven Kashmiris who were stranded at Muzaffarabad today returned their homes in a special service of Karvan-e-Aman Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus.
The PoK residents were desperate to go home as their families back home were worried for their safety. Only one person, Mohammad Yusuf of Muzaffarabad, was interested in staying back to help his relatives during these tough times. “I was not caught in floods as I was in Ompora which was not affected but my other relatives were affected. I wanted to help them to rebuild their lives but was not granted extension to stay back”, he said.
The special bus service was arranged for 57 passengers including 29 women, 4 children and 24 men who were stranded here due to floods and communication breakdown. However, the normal bus service will resume from Monday.
Two persons from Kashmir, who had valid permits to visit their relatives in PoK, had also come to Salamabad Facilitation Centre in Uri but were turned back. They were asked to report on Monday, when normal weekly bus service will resume operations as today’s bus was meant for clearing stranded passengers only.
Seven Kashmiris who had gone to PoK before the floods and were stranded also returned today. They included two children, two women and three men. However, no fresh PoK residents were allowed to cross in this special bus service which was meant for stranded passengers only.
The authorities on Wednesday announced a special bus service on Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road to allow the stranded PoK residents to return home. Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had on September 22 allowed residents of PoK, who were stranded in flood-hit Kashmir, to return to their homes via Poonch-Rawalakote route in Jammu region. However, no one chose to return from that route.
Saqib Rashid Bhat of Muzaffarabad, PoK had a sigh of relief when he boarded Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus this morning in Srinagar. Bhat had arrived in Srinagar August 18 and was scheduled to leave for home on September 8. “On September 7, we were in Suthra Shahi, Srinagar, preparing for our departure when waters entered into our relative’s house. For 5 days we were on second floor as ground and first floor were inundated. Initially, we had eatable but later there was deficiency of food and were mostly relied on water. Finally, we were rescued by local boys led by one Raja and taken to Pattan. Government didn’t help us. We were desperate to go home but there was communication breakdown. It was tough time for us and we are happy that we are heading home”, he said.
Shehzadi from Muzaffarabad had arrived in Srinagar on August 11. She was in Hyderpora when floods inundated the area. “We were rescued by locals. We then stayed with other relatives. Houses of some of our relatives are still inundated”, he added.
Mushtaq Ahmad, who was staying with his relatives in Jawahar Nagar had left for Nishat on Saturday evening to visit another relative. “We were lucky as Jawahar Nagar was inundated hardly 8 hours after we left. We lost our travel documents and our relatives were stuck there for several days before locals rescued them. However, the officials provided us fresh travel documents”, he said.
“The officials at Rajbagh Police Station were helpful in getting fresh travel documents prepared for us when it the Police Station was still under water”, said Mushtaq adding, “I am more impressed by the courage shown by the local youth, who not caring for personal safety, rescued hundreds of people from Jawahar Nagar and adjoining areas”.
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