LAHORE: Pakistan will resume the bi-weekly Samjhauta Express, commonly known as the Friendship Express, train service between India and Pakistan on Monday, three days after it was suspended as the nuclear-armed neighbors engaged in their worst standoff in decades.
Last week, escalation of hostilities between the arch-rivals, including aerial dogfights and heavy shelling along the border, nearly brought them to the brink of war.
The neighbours have fought three wars, two of them over the disputed Kashmir region, which they both claim in full but administer in part.
“The Samjhauta Express train will leave for Attari from platform 1 at 8 a.m. and the minister for railways has already announced the decision,” Railways spokesman Syed Ejaz Ahmad told Arab News on Sunday.
He said another train, the Thal Express, had already taken 600 passengers to India on Friday and returned the following day.
The Samjhauta Express direct service was established in 1976 and runs twice a week – from Lahore, Pakistan, every Monday and Thursday morning and from Delhi, India, every Saturday and Wednesday night.
On Thursday, the Pakistan foreign office said in light of ongoing tensions between Pakistan and India, operations of the Samjhauta Express had been suspended and would resumed “as soon as the security situation improves between India and Pakistan.” Following the Pakistani announcement, India also suspended the service on its side.
In 2007, two bombs exploded on board the Samjhauta Express bound from India to Pakistan, sparking a fire that killed at least 66 passengers and nearly sabotaging ongoing peace talks.
The train was first suspended on January 1, 2002 after an attack on Indian parliament in December 2001. Service resumed on January 15, 2004. Service was also suspended following the assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto in December 2007 to deny militants a "high-value target."
