Plot to target Indo-Pak peace bus foiled

A plan by suspected terrorists to derail the India-Pakistan peace process by targeting the Karvan-e-Aman bus, carrying 22 passengers to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir's capiptal Muzaffarabad from Srinagar was foiled on Thursday by police when they detected and defused a powerful Improvised Explosive Device on the route.

The foiled attempt was made two days after PoK Prime Minister Sardar Attique Ahmad Khan, in an interview with a leading English daily of the state Greater Kashmir had said that two more crossing points would be opened on the Line of Control for the families divided since 1947.

There are already five points where people from both sides of the LoC are crossing sides.

Official sources said a police patrol party on a routine checking for the security of the Muzaffarabad bound passengers, noticed a tin on the roadside at Lawaypora, about 15 km from Srinagar in north Kashmir this morning at 0720 IST.

The bus with the passengers had left Sriangar at 0715 IST, the sources said and would have reached there within half an hour.