After suspending Samjhauta Express, Pakistan to now shut down Thar Express services to India

New Delhi: Two days after suspending the Samjhauta Express, Pakistan government has decided to now shut down Thar Express services to India.

Thar Express, connecting Pakistan and India will be the second train service that will be shut down by Pakistan authorities, Sheikh Rasheed, Federal Minister for Railways announced.

The weekly train service running between Munabao-Khokhrapar route connects the deserts of Rajasthan in India and Sindh province in Pakistan.

The move comes days after the Narendra Modi government scrapped Article 370, Article 35A and bifurcated Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories (UTs) with two Lieutenant Governors. While Jammu and Kashmir will have a legislature, Ladakh will be a UT without a legislature.

Thar Express, a peace train undertaken as a Confidence Building Measures (CBM) was started in February 2006. The rail route, a continuation of the previous Sind Mail, was opened between India and Pakistan after a gap of more than four decades.

Earlier, on Friday morning, the Samjhauta Express train, plying between India and Pakistan, reached the national capital Pakistan suspended the train services and refused to proceed from the Wagah border.

The train was stranded at Wagah shortly afterwards and India had to dispatch an engine with a crew and guard to bring it back from the border checkpoint.

The train service was suspended once earlier this year after tensions escalated between the two neighbours following the Pulwama attack and Balakot strike in February.