Pakistan-India Dosti bus service operation restricted up to Wagah border

Pakistan restricted the movement of Dosti bus services on New Delhi – Lahore and Amritsar-Lahore-Nankana Sahib route up to Wagah border.

The decision was announced by the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) on 1 January 2015 and came into effect from 2 January 2015 onwards.

With this, now the passengers from Pakistan leaving for New Delhi and Amritsar will have to catch the bus at Wagah. Similarly, passengers from India will arrive and disembark at Wagah.

Pakistan decided to restrict the services in wake of growing terror threats especially after the Taliban militants killed 150 people at an army-run school in Peshawar on 16 December 2014.

Restrictions in recent past  
For the first time the bus services on Delhi – Lahore route was suspended in the aftermath of the Indian Parliament attack in 2001 but the bus service was resumed in July 2003 when bilateral relations had improved between India and Pakistan.
In 2009, the movement of Indian buses was restricted up to Wagah when there was a terrorist attack on the cricket team of Sri Lanka in Lahore.

The bus service between Delhi and Lahore was started in February 1999 by the then Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif. It operates six days a week with no service on Sunday.
The bus service on Amritsar – Lahore – Nankana Sahib Route was started in 2006 during the tenure of PM Manmohan Singh. The buses on this route ply four times in a week.