LAHORE, Aug 6: The Pakistan Railways has started checking goods, passengers and train compartments with sniffer dogs at major stations to ensure the safety of passengers.

A meeting held at the Pakistan Railways headquarters in Lahore on Tuesday was informed that walkthrough gates and surveillance cameras had also been in place at Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Lala Musa, Lahore, Multan, Rohri, Nawab Shah, Hyderabad and Karachi stations.

Railways board acting chairman Parveen Agha, the general manager (operations), the additional general manager (traffic) Javed Anwar Bubak and other principal officers attended the meeting, presided over by Minister for Railways Khwaja Saad Rafiq.

The meeting was informed that a central control room had been established at PR Police Headquarters in Lahore where passengers would register their security-related complaints at phone number 042-36369060.

The minister asked Railways Police Inspector-General Syed Ibne Husain to contact his counterparts of provinces and Frontier Constabulary and seek their assistance in security arrangements.

A representative of Interior Ministry assured the meeting that full assistance would be extended to railways police.

Eid trains: The pre-Eid operation of Pakistan Railways began on Tuesday with the departure of one special train each from Karachi and Quetta.

Five special trains would be operated to facilitate commuters on Eidul Fitr, says a spokesman.

On Tuesday, the first Eid special left Karachi for Peshawar and the second Quetta for Rawalpindi.

On Wednesday (today), the third train would leave Karachi at 11am to reach Lahore through Multan and Faisalabad at 11:50am on Thursday. The fourth special train would leave Peshawar at 12noon to reach Lahore at 9:10am the same day.

The fifth Eid special train would leave Rawalpindi at 11pm for Lahore on Wednesday.