Track cleared for Samjhauta

By Amit Baruah

ISLAMABAD, APRIL 14. Pakistani and Indian Railway officials have reached what is described as an ``interim arrangement'' to continue the Lahore- Attari Samjhauta Express, with another meeting being scheduled for April 26 to clinch the deal from May 1 onwards.

Following a day-long meeting of the officials at Wagah, Lt. Gen. Javed Ashraf (retd.), Chairman of the Pakistani Railway Board, said this evening that from May 1 the Indian side had offered to run the rake of six months though certain details were yet to be firmed up.

According to him, the Indian side wanted the Indian rake to return from Lahore the same day. Customs formalities could delay the return and, consequently, this issue would be decided on April 26.

Mr. Iqbal Samad, Pakistan Railways General Manager in Lahore, said over telephone that as part of the ``interim arrangement'' Pakistan would run the rake on April 18 from Lahore to Attari. However, on April 20, an Indian rake and engine would run from Attari to Wagah, where all the passengers would have to detrain and continue the rest of their journey to Lahore by a Pakistani rake.

He, too, said that the April 26 meeting would finalise the arrangements by which it was expected that the Indian side would provide the rake and engine for a six-month period beginning May 1. The Pakistani rake which traversed the 27-km distance between Lahore and Attari on Tuesday and Thursday returned to Lahore everyday. As such, Mr. Samad did not see any problem in the return of the Indian rake to Attari.

Pakistan had threatened to stop the operation of the Samjhauta Express after April 15 since India had not been providing the rake and engine for six months of the year as per a 1991 agreement reached between the two countries.

The Indian rake had been stopped after a Pakistani objection in 1994 when the plague hit Surat.

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