KOHAT: The district administration organised a family gala to welcome the Azadi Train which arrived at the Kohat Railway Station here on Saturday.

Large number of people, district nazim Maulana Niaz Mohammad and MNA Shehryar Afridi had gathered there while students of schools danced to the tune of the drums on the occasion.

The train had a section prepared by the ISPR and others depicted culture of all the four provinces. Accompanied by railway officials the Azadi Train completed its country-wide journey in Kohat.

Meanwhile, the district nazim, Jamil Paracha of PML-N and president of Karwan-i-Ammal Saleem Altaf declared on the occasion that they would not allow the train to move ahead in protest against the suspension of railcar service between Kohat and Rawalpindi.

They said they wanted a surety that the service would be restarted soon which had been stopped on lame excuse of damaged track on which goods train was plying regularly and Azadi Train too had safely arrived from Rawalpindi.

However, later they allowed the train to go as a gesture of goodwill saying to the railway officials that they were their respectable guests.

However, they asked the officials to convey their concerns to their high regarding suspension of the railcar service.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2016