Aamir Latif
09 August 2019•Update: 09 August 2019
KARACHI, Pakistan
Pakistan on Friday announced it was going to suspend two road links with India from Monday, in another sign of escalating tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors after New Delhi scraped the special status of disputed Jammu Kashmir region.
The two bus services -- Dosti (Friendship Bus Service), which piles from Pakistan’s northeastern Lahore city to Indian capital New Delhi, and Amritsar Bus Services, which runs from Lahore to Amritsar -- will be operated last time on Saturday.
The two services will be fully suspended from Monday, Communications Minister Murad Saeed told reporters in capital Islamabad.
The move came hours after Pakistan suspended second train link with India -- Thar Express -- which runs from Pakistan’s Mirpur Khas district to Indian Jhodpur district.
On Thursday, Islamabad had also suspended Samjautha Expresses -- a bi-weekly train service inking northeastern Lahore with New Delhi.
Tensions between Islamabad and New Delhi have further heightened following India's move to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir -- which allowed Kashmiri citizens to enact their own laws and prevented outsiders to settle and own land in the territory.
Kashmiri leaders and citizens fear this step is an attempt by the Indian government to change demography of the Muslim-majority state, where some groups have been fighting against Indian rule for independence, or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.
Pakistan has also downgraded diplomatic relations with India, suspended trade and expelled the Indian high commissioners.
The Himalayan region is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full.
Since they were partitioned in 1947, the two countries have fought three wars -- in 1948, 1965 and 1971 -- two of them over Kashmir.
According to several human rights organizations, thousands of people have reportedly been killed in the conflict in the region since 1989.
