[sacw] The forgotten track to Pakistan (TOI)

[Harsh Kapoor]

FYI
South Asia Citizens web
=======================
From: Times of India, Friday 19 February 1999

The forgotten track to Pakistan

By Prakash Bhandari
( The Times of India News Service)

JAIPUR: With the Delhi-Lahore bus about to become a reality, the people of
west Rajasthan are now hoping for the reopening of the closed rail link
between Munabao and Khokhraparkar, the last railway station on the
Pakistani side.
The distance between Munabao in Barmer district and Khokhraparkar in Sindh
is barely 11 km and the railway line is lying unused since the 1965 war.
The rail link was established by a former maharaja of Jodhpur and provided
access to people right upto Karachi and Hyderabad in Sindh.
Last year, the issue of reopening the Munabao-Khokhraparkar route came up
during the talks Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had with his Pakistani
counterpart Nawaz Sharif.
``When in operation, the metre- gauge railway line used to ferry about
1,500 passengers from both sides. People from Sindh who wanted to come to
erstwhile Rajputana would travel by this route,'' said Ram Chandra Bora, a
veteran freedom fighter who once worked in the area as a signal inspector.
A number of Hindus who opted to live in Pakistan availed the train
facility while a number of Sindhi Muslims and Miranis from the Indian side
travelled to Pakistan.
A migrant from Pakistan remembered having seen in 1964 the table of the
station master of Hyderabad railway station in Sindh using the same large
wooden table which had the seal `JR' (Jodhpur Railway) inscribed on it. The
erstwhile Jodhpur Railway territory extended upto Hyderabad.
``We came from Hyderabad in Sindh to Jodhpur by this rail route. A
majority of Sindhis who migrated to India also came by this route and then
spread to various parts of the country,'' said Sewaram Poptiani, a
foodgrain trader here.
After the 1971 war, Pakistan signed an agreement to open the rail links.
But while the Wagah- Atari route was opened, the Munabao-Khokhraparkar rail
link remained closed.
In 1986, the then Pakistan prime minister Mohammed Khan Junejo had
announced that the Sindh-Rajasthan link would be re-started. After this,
Indian Railways speent Rs 15 lakh on renovating Munabao station. But all
this went in vain. During Benazir Bhutto's prime ministership, Sindhis and
Mohajirs had also demanded the reopening of the link. But Ms Bhutto came
under pressure from the army which was said to be against the move. The
Mohajir migrants from UP, MP, Rajasthan and Delhi who have relations in
India had said it would be economical for them to travel via Sindh and
reach India from where they could board a train from Jodhpur for their
respective destinations. The present Samjhauta Express train that runs
between Lahore and Delhi is not very covenient for people from Sindh.
If the rail line is reopened, the large number of Pakistanis who visit
Ajmer to offer prayers at the Dargah will benefit as the distance they have
to travel will be halved.
As for industrialists, they too want the link reopened. ``It will
encourage trade between the two countries. Earlier also, trade between the
two countries flourished because of the rail link,'' said Arun Agarwal, an
industrialist from Jodhpur.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
eGroup home: http://www.eGroups.com/list/act
Free Web-based e-mail groups by eGroups.com