LAHORE, Jan 15: Around 400 Indians and Pakistanis crossed the border at Wagah on Thursday as Samjhota Express resumed its operation after a break of over two years.
The 10-coach train carried 76 passengers, including 20 Indians, to Atari (India) in the morning and brought back 320 commuters from there to Lahore in the evening.
Prominent among them were two PPP MNAs from Sindh, Ramesh Lal and Anwar Bhutto, who were on way to Mumbai to attend the World Social Forum there. An MLA of the occupied Kashmir, Akhtar Nizami, with around 60 other Kashmiris came to Pakistan.
The train, inaugurated by Pakistan Railways Chairman Khurshid Ahmad Khan, left Lahore at 8am and after clearance by immigration staff at Wagah station, crossed the border over to India at 11.30am.
However, the Indians kept the train waiting at the border for about 40 minutes for undisclosed reasons. The Indian authorities also showed a cold shoulder to the opening of the new people-to-people link between the two neighbouring states as no formal welcome or send-off ceremony was held at the Atari station, said train driver Mian Allah Ditta, who had steered the last Samjhota Express on Dec 31, 2001, when New Delhi had unilaterally suspended all air, road and rail links.
Only an area traffic manager was there to receive the train at Atari station, he said. According to an Indian passenger, Tejandar Singh, even district-level authorities were not present at Atari as officials were of the view that it was not a new event and Samjhota Express had only resumed its operation, hence, there was no need for a formal ceremony.
The PR chairman earlier told reporters that both the countries would benefit from the Samjhota resumption. Asked which of the two countries would financially benefit from it, he said: "Only financial aspects of it should not be taken into consideration as there is also a human aspect of it. It will help remove misunderstandings between the two peoples."
Asked if the authorities were considering to open Khokhrapar-Rajasthan rail link too, he said so far it was very difficult because a lot of things had to be settled in this regard.
Replying to a question about resumption of the freight service, he said around half a dozen freight wagons could be attached to the Samjhota trains, if need be. However, for a full-scale freight business, fresh talks between the two railways were needed.
A source in Pakistan Railways told Dawn that an Indian railway team would visit Pakistan in mid-February to discuss freight service between the two countries.
Replying to a question, Mr Khan said both Pakistan and India would provide a rake for Samjhota Express for six months each. Pakistani rake, he added, had served for a month and five days before the train operation was suspended, the Indians would provide the rake for four months and 25 days during this term.
Meanwhile, people faced some difficulties at the immigration counter at Wagah as only 11-man staff had been appointed there assuming that the train would bring back only a few dozen passengers on the first day of the operation.
