Jammu, December 22
After spending two years in prison, for illegally crossing over to India, four members of a Pakistani family today walked to freedom thanking the Government of India but vowed to visit picturesque Jammu and Kashmir again.

“God has been kind to us and so has been the government which released us from the jail. We are very happy,” Ishrat Ali, a member of the Karachi-based family, said.

Ishrat along with his wife Salma and children — Sohial and Jawal — had inadvertently entered the border district of Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir while attending a marriage of their relative in 2004.

Cursing the day, he lost the way and landed up in the Indian territory, Ishrat said: “We have never thought that we will visit Kashmir and remain in jail for two years.”

Vowing to visit Kashmir again, he said: “one day, we will be in the valley again to admire its beauty, mountains and waterbodies apart from religious places.”

The family members said “We want to pray at Hazratbal shrine and visit the Dal lake in particular. We have heard about all these things from fellow jail inmates.”

The jail staff treated the family well, they said adding that “we are pained at being separated from them.”

The family was awarded one-year imprisonment for entering India illegally. It was extended further under the Public Safety Act. — PTI

Srinagar, December 22
Traffic on the 300-km-long Srinagar-Jammu road resumed this evening after remaining closed for 36-hours due to landslides and shooting stones.

A traffic police official told UNI this evening that traffic resumed after the landslides were cleared.

He said all stranded vehicles, which left Jammu yesterday morning, are on way to Srinagar today. These will reach here late tonight, he said.

The official said if the weather remained dry and there were no landslides, traffic from here to Jammu would be allowed tomorrow.

About 5000 people were stranded on the 300-km-long national highway which was closed yesterday due to landslides, resulting in price rise of essential commodities in the Kashmir valley.

The traffic official said one-way traffic resumed on the highway last evening after the landslides were cleared by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) responsible for the maintainance of the highway, the only road linking the Kashmir valley with the rest of the country.

The official said no vehicle would be allowed from Jammu or Srinagar till all vehicles, stranded on the highway for the past two-days were cleared.

Official sources said near 5000 passengers, including truck drivers and conductors, who left Jammu yesterday morning in near 2000 vehicles, were stranded at different points on the highway. — UNI

Jammu, December 22
Mr Ghulam Qadir Bhat, elder brother of Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, died of cardiac arrest last night at Mecca where he had gone to perform Haj.

Mr Azad left for Delhi this morning from where he will fly to Mecca to participate in the burial.

Family sources said Mr Bhat (66) had left for Haj on December 3. Mr Azad received information of his death around midnight. Mr Bhat retired as District Welfare Officer.

The Governor, S.K. Sinha, PDP leader, Mufti Sayeed, PCC chief, Peerzada Sayeed, ministers Mangat Ram Sharma, Tariq Hameed Qarra and other ministerial colleagues have expressed grief at Mr Bhat’s death.

A condolence meeting was held in the headquarters of the PCC where the party leaders mourned Mr Bhat’s death.