NEW DELHI: In the backdrop of the heightened tension between India and Pakistan, the number of people travelling on the Samjhauta Express to visit the neighbouring country has declined to nearly half than usual at this time of the year.
Against a total capacity of 777, the train which left Old Delhi railway station of Pakistan on Sunday night had only 275 passengers on board.
"Among the total passengers, 209 were Pakistani nationals who had come to India, while only 66 Indians set off for the neighbouring country," S N Malik, Old Delhi Railway Station Superintendent Delhi, said.
The lesser number of Indians travelling to Pakistan is attributed to the government's advisory warning Indians "not to travel or be in Pakistan".
According to the railway officials, Samjhauta Express, the ten-coach train, was running almost full before the Mumbai terror strikes.
The Samjhauta Express, plying twice in a week on Tuesdays and Fridays from Attari and on Sundays and Wednesdays from Delhi, was started on July 22, 1976 following the Shimla Agreement and was the only rail connection between the two countries until the reopening of the Thar Express.
The train was discontinued for the first time on January 1, 2002 in the wake of the terrorist attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001.
Service resumed in 2004 and was again suspended following the assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto 27 December, 2007 as a preventive measure to deny militants from targeting the train, which was of great symbolic importance for the two countries.
Earlier in February 2007, the train was hit by blasts, killing over 60 people and injuring several others. Since then, security of the train has been immensely beefed up, officials said.
