India restores rail service to Pakistan

NEW DELHI: India on Sunday decided to restore a train service to Pakistan two days after suspending it over security concerns in the wake of violence over Benazir Bhutto's killing, the railways ministry said.

"The situation has improved. So, the government has allowed the services to be resumed," said Anil Saxena, a spokesman for the railways ministry.

The "Samjhauta (friendship) Express" that runs between New Delhi and the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore will leave the Indian capital late Sunday for the border town of Attari from where it would cross the border.

The government was also likely to resume the second train, the Thar Express, named after India's western desert, to leave the city of Jodhpur for the Pakistani town of Khokrapar next week.

More than 400 passengers, mostly Pakistani nationals were stranded in Jodhpur at the weekend because of the cancellation of the train that runs every Friday, the Press Trust of India reported. The Thar rail link was reopened in 2006 after a gap of four decades to improve relations between the rival nations.

In February, 68 people, mostly Pakistani holiday-makers, were killed in a bomb blast on the "Samjhauta Express" in north India. The blast was blamed on Islamic terrorists seeking to derail a slow-moving peace dialogue between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.

Bhutto died on Thursday after a suicide attack targeting her vehicle at a campaign rally in the northern Pakistani city of Rawalpindi.

Her death triggered a wave of violence throughout Pakistan by angry and grief-stricken supporters which has left at least 38 people dead.