SRINAGAR: The first post office in India, which was, until recently, referred to as the last post office, is located on the banks of the Kishenganga River near the Line of Control (LoC) in the Keran sector of Jammu and Kashmir.
The post office, bearing PIN code 193224, is run by a postmaster and three mail runners. It was known as the last post office of the country until recently. Now the signboard near it describes it as the “First Post Office of India”.
The post office is located right on the edge of Pak-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) where the LoC divides the anxious nations. A stream passes between, known as Kishenganga River on one side of the LoC and Neelum River on the other. On the Indian bank of the river, stands the post office
With the border ceasefire between India and Pakistan troops undisturbed in the past two years, the postmaster Shakir Bhat and three mail runners are distributing the mail with significant ease, without the fear of being caught in a border fire-fight or shelling.
Earlier, mail runners were hesitant in delivering mail to the army posted at the LoC and to the local population out of the fear of the barrage of bullets that were exchanged across the border occasionally.
The thawing of ice between India and Pakistan, with decreasing cross-border hostilities between the two nations, has made the life of the locals relatively easier. Those working at the post office echoed a similar relief.
It is a historic post office, being operational even before the two countries were divided in hate in 1947. The post office did not refrain from its duties towards the people and troops even as the hostilities between Indian and Pakistan forces reached their peak in 1965, 1971 and 1998 Kargil wars between the two nuclear-armed neighbouring states.
The post office has been functioning out of the house of postmaster Shakir ever since 1993 when the post office was washed away in the flash floods. A local Tufail Ahmed Bhat said that the post office mostly received mail and speed posts for and from army personnel posted at the LoC.
It takes three days for speed posts to reach the Keran post office, from where postmaster Shakir and the three mail runners take them to their destination without fail. He said the post office has recently become an attraction for tourists, who are visiting Keran after the border area was relatively demilitarized and opened to visitors last year.
After the improvement in the ground situation in J&K and the cessation of India-Pakistan hostilities at the LoC, the authorities have thrown open many border areas including Keran, Karnah, Uri, Gurez, etc to visitors. Earlier, these border areas used to be completely inaccessible to outsiders and even for the local population.