On alternate days, a DTC (Delhi Tourism Corporation) or Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) bus leaves from Delhi at 6 a.m. and a bus from Lahore arrives in the evening. On Friday, it was the  PTDC bus that brought passengers from Lahore to Delhi.

Nothing had changed, said Lahore resident Sofia Joseph when she reached Delhi on Friday evening. This was the second time she had travelled to Delhi with her son on the Delhi to Lahore bus. This time, the family travelled to India so the five-year-old boy could have open-heart surgery.

“There is no change. People in Pakistan want peace. The only difference is that it was more difficult to get visas this time compared to when we came four years ago,” she told a reporter outside the  Ambedkar Bus Terminal in Delhi.

The tensions between India and Pakistan after 18 Indian soldiers were killed by militants in Uri on September 18 have escalated since Thursday,  when India carried out  “surgical strikes” against  terrorist “launchpads” across the Line of Control.

But for passengers on the Delhi-Lahore bus, which was started in 1999, with then-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee travelling on the inaugural service, not much had changed.

Mohammad Asif, a Lahore resident who travelled with his wife and two children to Delhi, said that this was the family’s second visit and did not feel any different from the first. “Half of our family is here so we only want peace. There are no ill feelings towards Indians,” said Mr. Asif.

Indians returning agreed. Nafees Bano, a resident of Lucknow, had gone to visit her ailing sister in Karachi on September 8. “We did not face any trouble, but my family back in India started asking us to return quickly after the incidents in Kashmir. The people of both countries only want peace,” she said.

A spokesperson of the DTC told a newspaper that  the bus service had not been affected by happenings at the Line of Control. He said the number of passengers tended to fluctuate. For instance, on Friday morning the bus left with 17 passengers, though there were 20 bookings. There were 26 bookings on September 21, 43 or full capacity on September 23, 24 on September 26 and 14 on September 28 – the day before the Indian Army’s strike.

Travellers  to Lahore were not forced to change in plans, even after tension has begun. A businessman from Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, Mashad Raza, has booked tickets  to Lahore on October 3. Mr. Raza said he and his wife would be travelling to Karachi as his father-in-law had passed away.

Raza, whose  my wife is from Pakistan, has been there four times. People over there want peace,” said Mr. Raza. adding however, that  the visa formalities had become more complex.“Now if someone asks me for advice if they should get married to someone from Pakistan, I tell them not to do it,” he told a reporter.

  Indo-Pakistan, naked truth