KARACHI, 19 February 2006 — A train linking India and Pakistan rolled across the Thar Desert yesterday, marking the restoration of a rail link cut off four decades ago.
The train service was halted in 1965 after track were damaged during a war between the two South Asian rivals.
Decked with flags and colorful pennants, the “Thar Express,” which left Karachi with more than 200 passengers before midnight, reached the Indian border town of Munabao early yesterday, said Attiqur Rahman, a Pakistan Railway official.
Sitting on camels, paramilitary troops patrolled the desert as the train arrived at Pakistan’s southern border village of Khokhrapar for its onward journey to Munabao.
Many passengers burst into tears and shouted “Long Live Pak-India friendship” as the Thar Express halted at Zero Point, the last stop on the Pakistani side of the border.
Dancers wearing traditional dresses danced to the beat of drums to greet the train, decorated with colorful buntings.
“I was 13 years old when I came here. Now I am going to my home for the first time after 58 years,” said Mohammad Ali Azhar, whose parents migrated to Pakistan following partition of the subcontinent in 1947.
Ladhi Singh Sodho, a Hindu Pakistani engineer, was making his first visit to his in-laws since he and his wife married in 1992.
“We belong to this desert. This sand does not distinguish between Hindu and Muslim. This is sand of my own people,” he said, his voice filled with emotion.
“Resumption of the Thar train and other such steps will definitely promote love and friendship between the two countries.” Up to 12,000 people bade farewell to the train when it stopped at the southern Pakistani city of Hyderabad on Friday night on its way to Khokhrapar.
The train later returned to Zero Point in Pakistan with Indian passengers. The train dropped about 165 Pakistanis in Munabao before coming back hours later with some 260 passengers, officials and journalists who were accorded a festive welcome and served lunch.
“I am delighted to have come on this train as I would meet my brother in Pakistan after 40 years,” 55-year-old Mohammed Saleem said.
When the train festooned with bunting arrived at Zero Point marking the border between India and Pakistan, there were folk dances and drum-rolls and people cried “Long live Pakistan-Indian friendship!”
Reopening of the link is a “milestone in the relationship between Pakistan and India as more and more people can travel again after 41 years,” Salahuddin Haider, spokesman for the southern province of Sindh, said.
The train service will be operated using a Pakistani train for the first six months and an Indian train for the subsequent six months.
It will be the second rail link established between the nuclear-armed rivals since they launched a peace process two years ago after they went to the brink of a fourth war.
A train service linking India’s Punjab state with Pakistani Punjab was restored in 2004.
Last month, the two countries launched a third cross-border bus service. While confidence-building measures undertaken by the two countries have strengthened transport, cultural, sporting and commercial links since starting the peace process, they have made little progress on Kashmir. —Additional input from agencies.
