Use LoC bus for pilgrimage too, urges Mehbooba Mufti

Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to make a formal request to the Centre to allow the state’s minority brahmins, known as Kashmiri pandits, and other Hindus to use the cross-LoC bus for visiting Sharda Peth, a revered shrine of the community located near Muzaffarbad, the capital of PoK.

Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday assured a delegation of Save Sharda Committee Kashmir (SSCK) that she would be raising this issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during their scheduled meeting in New Delhi Wednesday evening.

The delegation told her that allowing the Kashmiri pandits and other Hindus of Jammu and Kashmir to pay pilgrimage visit to Pakistani-occupied-Kash-mir will intensify people to people contact between the two sides which in turn will help towards restoration of peace in the divided State and beyond. A statement issued by the J&K government said that the SSCK headed by its founder member Ravinder Pandita demanded that the ancient Shardha Peth temple across the LoC be thrown open to members of Kashmir Pandit community and also the cross-LoC permits be expanded to include religious and heritage tourism. “The delegation pleaded that this will intensify further the people to people contacts across LoC,” the state said.

It added that the chief minister, while appreciating the efforts of the committee, asked it “to continue with its efforts of reviving their cultural ethos and building bridges of peace through it”. She assured the delegation that she will raise the issue with the Central government.

The weekly cross-LoC bus rolled out between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad and Poonch and Rawlakot in 2005 to facilitate travel by the members of the divided families. But strong voices are being raised on both sides that the service may be allowed to be used also for heritage and pilgrimage tourism.  

Pandita told this newspaper that the Chief Minister while endorsing the delegation’s view said that she would be raising the issue with the Prime Minister at their meeting in New Delhi in the evening. He said that the delegation briefed the Chief Minister on recent developments pertaining to possibility of resuming pilgrimage to Sharda from J&K in the backdrop of the Supreme Court of PoK’s recent order seeking preservation of the peeth. “She was briefed also about the strategic importance of the site by Lt. Gen. (Retd) Ata Hasnain, who is also the founder member of the committee,” Pandita said. She was also told that temples including Sharda are not only of religious importance but also hold great value as historical and archaeological sites.