Monday, October 17 2005 13:17 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Srinagar: As many as 46 passengers of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service remained untraceable even 10 days after the killer earthquake devastated large areas of Jammu and Kashmir on either side of the Line of Control raising fears that they might have perished.

Only whereabouts of eight passengers of the Caravan-e-Aman have been known so far while 46 of them, who had gone to Muzaffarabad on various dates, were still missing, Regional Passport Officer S L Sriramalu told sources.

He said five Sikhs, who traveled by the October six edition of the bus service, had been brought back through the International Border while two Hindus, Jagdish Lal Tandon and his son were traced in Islamabad, Pakistan.

One Hindu passenger, Basti Ram Tandon, was killed in the earthquake, he said. Although one person had crossed back by foot to Uri, his native village, the authorities expressed ignorance about his presence.

As the remaining passengers could not be contacted as yet, it is widely believed that they might have perished along with their relatives in Muzaffarabad and other quake-affected areas of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.