LAHORE, Feb 28: The hoax caller who created panic among the passengers of the Karakoram Express on Tuesday merely wanted to stop his friend from visiting Karachi.

The caller, Shabbir Hussain, a book binder from Sanda, has been booked under Anti-Terrorism Act and a court of law remanded him in judicial custody for 14 days, the railway police said on Wednesday.

During preliminary interrogation, Hussain told railways police that he did his best to stop his friend Aamir Ali from visiting Karachi but to no avail. “I made a call to the railways staff and told them there was a bomb in coach No 6. By bomb I meant Aamir and nothing else,” a PR police official quoted Hussain as having told the interrogators.

The Karachi-bound Karakoram Express had to be halted at Darul Ahsan railway station in Faisalabad on Tuesday when PR’s Lahore control office informed the railways police that it had received information that a bomb had been planted in the train’s coach No 6.

Railways police and the bomb disposal squad thoroughly examined the whole train but found nothing and allowed the passengers to board their coaches again after four hours and 38 minutes.

The whereabouts of Hussain were traced through the cell number he used to make the hoax call.