ATTARI: Both Indian and Pakistani passengers on board Lahore-Delhi bus were critical of Pakistan government's decision of restricting bus service up to Wagah (Pakistan) only and were even skeptical of closure of Indo Pak bus service in wake of Pak government's inability to provide security to bus.

On Thursday only fourteen passengers arrived from Pakistan complaining of hardships they had to face when they were suddenly asked to travel up to Wagah from Gulberg in Lahore from where bus leaves for India.

"For past nearly two weeks, Pakistan government had made unprecedented security arrangements from Wagah to Lahore and now they have decided to shift bus operations to Wagah" said driver of Lahore-Delhi bus Dharmapal Singh while talking to TOI on Thursday. He informed that after new arrangement, passengers disembarks at Wagah and have to make their own arrangement for their onward journey to Lahore or any other destination. Similarly, he said passengers had to reach themselves at Wagah in Pakistan to board the bus to Delhi.

A couple of days ago Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) had written a letter to both Delhi Transport Corporation and Punjab Roadways informing their decision of shrinking bus service up to Wagah (Pakistan) . PTDC has also made its sub office at Wagah and shifted operations of bus owing to security reasons.

Following their decision Delhi-Lahore, Amritsar-Lahore and Amritsar-Nankana Sahib bus service have been restricted up to Wagah (Pakistan). The buses will cross the Attari international border and passengers will disembark at Wagah . PTDC has made arrangement for parking of buses and stay of staff at Wagah from where they will leave for India. Earlier the bus was operated from Gulberg in Lahore.

A teacher from Faislabad Rashid Hanif said "This is totally wrong decision, when I reached Gulberg for boarding the bus today , I was told to go to Wagah , I had to take a auto and pay Rs 500 , next time I will not travel in bus". When asked about the security concerns he replied "Passengers have to travel anyway to Wagah individually or in a bus, this means Pak government is not concerned about individual passenger's security" he said.

Resident of Delhi, Shabnam who had gone to Karachi to meet her relatives said "Instead of adding facilities to passengers traveling between two nations, Pakistan government has added more woes ". She said she had to hire a taxi to reach Wagah . "We were told that bus station has been shifted to Wagah due to security reasons" she said adding that the decision might be good for safety of passengers but travel to Pak has become cumbersome.

Quipping at Pak security system, Hakeemudeen from Delhi said "We can provide security to bus for more than 500 kilometers , can't they (Pakistan) provide us security for just less than thirty kilometers". He said disembarking at Wagah and then going to Lahore or reaching Wagah from Lahore to board bus to India would not only make bus service more expensive and out of reach of common man but would also make traveling more tiring adding that he apprehend that Pak could take next step of simply stopping the bus service.