Why Have This Train At All?

This is a very sad incident. One of the most unfortunate things is when a dear one starts to travel to come home but never reaches home. Unbearable tragidy for the families.

This whole business of transportation between the two coutnries is messed up, very inefficient and unsafe. I was at Wagha 2 months ago...there was a line of about 50 trucks loaded with tomatoes waiting on the Indian side to be trasported to the pakistan. each box of tomatoes dripping jucies through the cracks was unloaded, inspected, and an Indian porter carried it about half kilometer to the borderline where it was handed over(or headed over) to the pakistani porter who carried another quarter mile to paksitan side to be loaded on the trucks. Indian porters told me they get 18-25 rupees per box, I guess pakistani porters take the similar amount. When I cam back after 4 days, number of trucks waiting in line did not go down. Tomatoes were getting rotten due to this wait and many of the boxes were beign thrown on a heap of garbage on Pakistani side. what kind of trade can bear these costs and still succeed?

Same thing about these passengers...I don`t see how it could be efficient or safe to pack so many people in the train from so for and then do the immigration and customs at Attari. guess the reason they are locked in the train is they don`t have visa to visit other parts of the country...but that could be easily enforced in other ways. Even if there is no threat of terrorism, locking the train cabins from outside is a hazard. it goes against the common sense. Would anyone of us travel in our cars if we knew we could not open its doors when needed?

May be if the doors were open some lives would have been saved. But the reason people died in this case is the explosion or fire whichever way is started. If it was a result of somoene`s criminal intent then other issues are secondary in this incident although very important in nromal functioning of the system.

I am wondering since this si samjhauta express, did both countries agree to the ground rules on how to screen the bagage, weight limits, fare amount, locking of the cabins etc?

#108
What do you mean check my tone? You were the one accusing me of being responsible for this attack and making adverse comments about me when I wasn`t even interacting. You want to badmouth me but also badmouth me for giving your rude remarks a fitting reply. WAKE UP, this is not Pakistan where Hindus can`t talk back to you, this is an open forum.

#107 But please tell me, what is the security on the Pakistan side for the train going in the other direction? Is it any more stringent?

---

Ranjit has raised a good question. My feeling is whatever the security and other procedures are in place for Samjhuata express may be same/similar level and mutually agreed upon by both countries.

dullabhatti #113
The Indian Railways have clarified that the doors are not locked from outside.

http://www.gulfnews.com/world/India/10105916.html
New Delhi: Indian Railways yesterday denied Pakistan`s allegation that the doors of the two compartments ripped apart by blasts that killed at least 68 people were locked from outside.

Northern Railway`s chief PRO Rajiv Saxena said the passengers on the Old Delhi-Attari train that links up with the Samjhauta Express to Lahore travelled like any other train.

Pakistan`s Railway Minister Shaikh Rashid had alleged on Monday after the blasts near Haryana`s Panipat town that the doors were locked from outside, preventing people from escaping - 553 of the 757 passengers on the train were Pakistanis, he said.

The minister was reported as saying that people died or were critically injured because they were in a ``locked up cage``.

``It is absolutely wrong and incorrect to say that the two bogies were locked from outside,`` Saxena said.

He added that Indians and Pakistanis travelling from Delhi to Lahore by train are subjected to customs and immigration formalities only at Attari station.

The only difference between this and any other train, he said, was that the Old Delhi-Attari train stops at Ambala for ``crew change``. After that it goes directly to Attari, near Amritsar, the last station on this side of the border.

#113 by dullabhatti on February 20, 2007 3:45pm PT

Pakiland`s inflation for the sensitive price index is more than 11%..the government of pakiland would rather the poor not eat the tomatoes than allow direct transport..

remember..we`re talking about the same people who would rather let their people die than accept indian helicopter support..

goatbrain aasif here is now feigning outrage and demanding equal victim-hood for pakis..and he wants us to forget that pakis are very enthusiastic supports of their government`s jihadi policies...if his love for the jihadi has gone back into the closet, it`s because of a fear of DHS rather than any real moral qualms...

Re: # 114
I am refering to your oft-repeated mantra `tu paki meiN napaki`. Blaming every pakistani for the crime of the few. Don`t complain when the same medicine is administered to you.

#116 I have watched the transfer of these passengers to the tain to pakistan(Samjhauta or may be earlier versions of it) many a times at Attari station. Attari station is about 1.5-2km from the border line. The road that connect my village and Attari crosses the railway line between the Station and border. I have stopped on this `faaTak` few hundred times probably in my life when the faatak is closed to let the train leave the station and cross to pakistan side. The train is escorted by BSF guards on horses on both sides of the tracks from Attari station until Border. The train coming from pakistan is escorted to Attari railway station the same way. I presume same procedure is followed escorting train from border to Wagha station by Pakistani rangers.

Re: # 111 Raw:
It is not law-and-order. It is following the procedures which are in place but not followed. You may make it sound like iraq or somalia but it is not. They can (and inshallah) will be eradicated. Rule of the law needs to be followed starting from the highest echelons of power. No extra judicial killing of islamist or otherwise. That only breeds resentment. Vast Majority of pakistanis will be in favor of something like this - jihad chanda box not withstanding.

hypocrite #118
I am replying to your blaming me for the terrorist attack. I wouldn`t have even been interacting here if it hadn`t been for your personal remarks about me.

Re: # 121 namecaller crybaby:
Chowk history didn`t start from this board.

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

Re: # 123 crybaby:
No one is blaming you. I am just saying that you should be happy that pakistanis got hurt. Simple? Comprende?
And it is your brilliant mind which took the jump from criminal negligence to hindu-fundo-jehadi nexus directly linked to you.

#124
``No one is blaming you. I am just saying that you should be happy that pakistanis got hurt. Simple? Comprende? ``

I already replied in my very first post to whether I am happy or not that Pakistanis got hurt. I said

``For Pakistani non-elite innocents to be killed by terrorists, that too in India, to me, is even worse than Indians being killed in such an attack. If the perpetrators are found to be jihadi organisations of Pakistan, such a heinous attack only further reveals the depths of their depravity which had already been obvious for years in J&K. ``


You can`t bear to acknowledge this comment, so you lie repeatedly and continuously about what I feel. Bullies like you are essentially cowards - you can`t go after the real culprits so you are targetting me.

Why have India? Why have Pakistan? Why have Islam? Why have Hinjras? Why have Khusralsa?

Re: # 125 sadna:
I am sorry to say that even though your acknowledgement may be sincere, the fact is you never acknowleged other pakistani chowkies expression of grief over similar events in india. You have called me worse names before and it doesn`t make an iota of difference.

#126 khusrala-sach:
monay... wadi Doongi gal kiti aey!

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts