Tuesday, April 5 2005 13:45 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Srinagar: Less then two days before the maiden run of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service, the four militant groups renewed their threat today (Apr 5, 2005), saying that the two bus drivers and the passengers would "writhe in bloody pain" if they tried to cross the Line of Control (LoC).

"We have collected the complete bio-data of both the drivers of the State Road Transport Corporation. They are warned not to play with their lives by driving these buses," al Nasireen, Save Kashmir Movement, al Arifeen and Farzandan-e-Millat said in a joint statement in Srinagar.

"These people can cross the international border to meet their relatives. They should not be rigid in crossing through the LoC or else they have will have to writhe in bloody pain," they said.

The four militant groups had on March 30 and April 2 threatened the passengers of the inaugural bus service not to board the bus to Muzaffarabad, as it would harm the Kashmir cause.

While the previous joint statements were signed, today's statement was not signed by anyone.

They asked the passengers to take the Wagah border route to meet their relatives instead of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road.

The outfits claimed that they had got the list of passengers in original from close associates of Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

"It is not difficult to buy out some people close to Sayeed for some money," the statement said.

The outfits said the impression being created that the opening of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road would pave the way for independence of Kashmir was a "sugar-coated poison pill".

"Like Afzal Beg, who used to show green cloth and red salt (commonly referred to as Pakistani salt), these tactics are to mislead the people of Kashmir," the statement added.