Train from Pakistan reaches Rajasthan

Zero Point, Pakistan: Pakistan and India resumed a train service across the Thar desert on Saturday, 40 years after it was suspended following the second of the three wars between the two South Asian rivals.

Sitting on camels, paramilitary troops patrolled the desert as the train arrived at Pakistan's southern border village of Khokhrapar for its onward journey to Munabao in India's Rajasthan state. It arrived at Manabao later on Saturday.

Many passengers burst into tears and shouted "Long Live Pak-India friendship" as the Thar Express halted at Zero Point, the last stop on the Pakistani side of the border.

Dancers wearing traditional dress danced to the beat of drums to greet the train, decorated with colourful buntings.

"I was 13 years old when I came here. Now I am going to my home for the first time after 58 years," said Mohammad Ali Azhar, whose parents migrated to Pakistan to escape bloodshed that killed hundreds of thousands of people following the partition of the sub-continent in 1947.

At around 2pm (0830GMT), the flower-bedecked train with "Queen of the Desert" and "Bridge of friendship" written on it, crossed the India-Pakistan border.

A few minutes later it reached Munabao a sleepy village in western Rajasthan.

The train that brought it some 170 passengers and officials later returned with 260, most of them Indian passengers visiting their friends and relatives in Pakistan.

Hundreds of people and security personnel greeted the train along its two-km journey from the border to Munabao.

At the station, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav received the passengers, some of whom had gifts in their hands and tears in their eyes.

"History has been repeated. I am very glad to be in India," Jan Zahad, the train driver, told Reuters.

Zahad said he drove the last Pakistani train out of India in 1965 when the two countries went to war and the service halted.

Ladhi Singh Sodho, a Hindu Pakistani engineer, was making his first visit to his in-laws in India since he and his wife married in 1992.
"We belong to this desert. This sand does not distinguish between Hindu and Muslim. This is the sand of my own people," he said, his voice filled with emotion.

"Resumption of the Thar train and other such steps will definitely promote love and friendship between the two countries."

Up to 12,000 people bade farewell to the train when it stopped at the southern Pakistani city of Hyderabad on Friday night on its way to Khokhrapar.

"I'm very excited and very sentimental as I travel toward my roots," said 70-year-old Muhammad Ali Azhar, who was a youngster when his family moved to Pakistan from the city of Jaipur in India's Rajasthan state in 1947.

Sakina Doda from India's Punjab state, said she was going to meet her parents in the Pakistani city of Karachi, 35 years after she was married to an Indian. "I never dreamt of this day," she said, tearful with joy.

The service will be operated using a Pakistani train for the first six months and an Indian train for the subsequent six months.

It will be the second rail link established between the nuclear-armed rivals since they launched a peace process two years ago after they went to the brink of a fourth war.

"I am delighted to have come on this train as I will meet my brother in Pakistan after 40 years," 55-year-old Mohammad Saleem said.

Earlier, hundreds of people on the platform cheered and a band played lively tunes as the train chugged into Munabao.

"This is a simple journey being made in terms of distance but historically very significant," said a commentator on India's NDTV television network.

Reopening of the link is a "milestone in the relationship between Pakistan and India as more and more people can travel again after 41 years", said Salahuddin Haider, spokesman for the southern Pakistani province of Sindh.