NEW DELHI, 15 October 2005 — A train loaded with a second batch of Indian humanitarian aid for earthquake victims in Pakistan will arrive in Lahore overnight, a Foreign Ministry official said yesterday.
“The second consignment left for Pakistan today by train in four wagons,” said the official, Navtej Sarna.
The train will enter Pakistan through the Attari-Wagah route, the only rail link between the two countries.
The aid consignment for survivors of the 7.6-magnitude quake centered in the Pakistan zone of divided Kashmir is more than double the previous shipment of 26 tons of relief supplies.
“This consists of 68 tons of relief materials, which is made up of 5,000 blankets, 320 tents and 4.5 tons of plastic sheets,” Sarna said.
The decision to send aid by train was made after an airlift of supplies was delayed because of heavy congestion at Pakistani airports. A third aid delivery, also by train, is expected to follow.
“We’ve also decided to permit relief material being sent by private organizations and international (charities) to Pakistan,” Sarna said.
A Foreign Ministry source said charities would transport aid materials to Pakistan via the only international land border at Wagah in the northern Punjab state, and not across the cease-fire Line of Control in Kashmir.
On Wednesday, an Indian Air Force Ilyushin-76 aircraft flew seven truckloads of army medicines, 15,000 blankets and 50 tents to Pakistan after an offer of help was made by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
That consignment — the first such airlift between the neighbors in decades — was seen as adding new impetus to peace efforts between the two states struck by the quake on Saturday.
The tremor has claimed at least 25,000 lives in Pakistan and more than 1,300 in India.
