Summary Currently the Samjhota Express train and Dosti bus services are suspended.
ISLAMABAD (Web Desk) – Pakistan and India have decided to extend visas of stranded citizens by another week to facilitate them to return to their respective country after restoration of Samjhauta Train and Dosti Bus services.
The visas of stranded Pakistanis and Indians are going to expire as train and bus services between the two countries were suspended due to ongoing caste protests in a north Indian state.
Foreign office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria, in a statement in Islamabad today (Monday) said currently the Samjhota Express train and Dosti bus services are suspended, which has created problems for the Pakistanis who are currently in India and intend to return home.
He said Pakistan’s High Commission in New Delhi is in touch with Indian authorities for the assistance of stranded Pakistanis.
Similarly, the Indian High Commission has also requested for help to Indians stranded in Pakistan because of the suspension of bus and train service.
Fresh rioting and arson erupted in India’s Haryana state in caste protests that have left more than 20 people dead, and New Delhi faced a water crisis after mobs shut down a key supply.
Thousands of troops with shoot-on-sight orders were deployed in Haryana after week-long protests turned violent, with rioters setting fire to homes and railway stations and blocking highways.
The Jat rural caste is leading the protests, demanding quotas be set for Jats for highly sought-after government jobs and for university places. Caste members say they are struggling to find places despite India’s strong economic growth.
India reserves places for lower castes to try to bring victims of the country’s worst discrimination into the mainstream. But the government policy causes resentment among other communities, who say it freezes them out.
The latest protests echo caste violence that swept the western state of Gujarat in August last year, leaving several dead.
That state saw weeks of protests by the Patidar or Patel caste, who demanded the same treatment afforded to lower castes.
