Post-Pulwama, Samjhauta arrives with less passengers from Pakistan

Attari/New Delhi, Feb 26 (IANS) Following the February 14 terror attack on a CRPF convoy in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama in which 40 troopers were killed, the 'Samjhauta Express' between India and Pakistan has become an "immediate casualty".According to the Railway Ministry, the passenger footfall in the Delhi-Lahore Samjhauta Express, also popularly known as the Delhi-Atari Express, has fallen drastically as hardly a hundred passengers travelled on Monday. The peace train comprises six sleeper coaches and an AC 3-tier coach. However, when the train arrived at the Attari railway station in Punjab at India's International Border, most of the sleeper coaches were almost empty with only a few passengers. A Ministry official in Delhi said that its a drastic fall. "In normal times, more than 1,000 passengers would travel on each run of the Samjhauta Express from both the sides," he added.The train departs from the Old Delhi Railway Station at 11.10 p.m. twice a week on Wednesday and Sunday. On its return journey from Lahore, the train arrives in India on Monday and Thursday.
--IANS aks/in/ksk