Passenger train services between India and Bangladesh were restored yesterday, more than 40 years after direct train links were suspended between the neighbors following the 1965 India-Pakistan war.
The “Moitree [Friendship] Express” train between India’s Calcutta and the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka was flagged off by Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee in a colorful ceremony coinciding with the Bengali New Year.
Bedecked with flowers, the six-coach train carrying 250 passengers began its 500km journey to Dhaka after Mukherjee gave a signal through remote control.
The minister described it as a “historic and memorable” day for both countries and thanked the railway authorities for resuming the service that he said would bring the neighbors closer.
But the train was briefly stopped in the Nadia district bordering Bangladesh when about 50 protesters demanding help for Bangladeshi refugees squatted on the train tracks.
Security forces on the train got down when it stopped, but did not have to use force against the squatters who lifted the blockade of their own, PTI news agency said.
Railway officials said the Moitree Express would be a twice-weekly service. It will leave Kolkata for Dhaka on Saturdays and Sundays. The Indian service will have a capacity for 368 passengers while the Bangladeshi will accommodate 418 passengers.
The service was suspended following the 1965 war between India and Pakistan, of which Bangladesh was the eastern part. Bangladesh gained independence in 1971 but it was not until 2001 that India and Bangladesh began steps to resume the train link.
Railway officials said that the common history, culture and language of Bengalis on both sides of the borders had generated a demand for regular train service.
Many Bengalis who live in India’s West Bengal state said they would visit their native villages in Bangladesh.
“It is my homeland. I was born in Bangladesh and studied in Dhaka university. I also served as a principal in a school before we moved to India,” a passenger told the Headlines Today news channel.
BLOODSHED: North Koreans take extreme measures to avoid being taken prisoner and sometimes execute their own forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday said that Russian and North Korean forces sustained heavy losses in fighting in Russia’s southern Kursk region. Ukrainian and Western assessments say that about 11,000 North Korean troops are deployed in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces occupy swathes of territory after staging a mass cross-border incursion in August last year. In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy quoted a report from Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi as saying that the battles had taken place near the village of Makhnovka, not far from the Ukrainian border. “In battles yesterday and today near just one village, Makhnovka,
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland on Tuesday expressed concern about “the political crisis” in Georgia, two days after Mikheil Kavelashvili was formally inaugurated as president of the South Caucasus nation, cementing the ruling party’s grip in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s EU aspirations and a victory for former imperial ruler Russia. “We strongly condemn last week’s violence against peaceful protesters, media and opposition leaders, and recall Georgian authorities’ responsibility to respect human rights and protect fundamental freedoms, including the freedom to assembly and media freedom,” the three ministers wrote in a joint statement. In reaction
BARRIER BLAME: An aviation expert questioned the location of a solid wall past the end of the runway, saying that it was ‘very bad luck for this particular airplane’ A team of US investigators, including representatives from Boeing, on Tuesday examined the site of a plane crash that killed 179 people in South Korea, while authorities were conducting safety inspections on all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by the country’s airlines. All but two of the 181 people aboard the Boeing 737-800 operated by South Korean budget airline Jeju Air died in Sunday’s crash. Video showed the aircraft, without its landing gear deployed, crash-landed on its belly and overshoot a runaway at Muan International Airport before it slammed into a barrier and burst into flames. The plane was seen having engine trouble.
REVELRY ON HOLD: Students marched in Belgrade amid New Year’s events, saying that ‘there is nothing to celebrate’ after the train station tragedy killed 15 Thousands of students marched in Belgrade and two other Serbian cities during a New Year’s Eve protest that went into yesterday, demanding accountability over the fatal collapse of a train station roof in November. The incident in the city of Novi Sad occurred on Nov. 1 at a newly renovated train facility, killing 14 people — aged six to 74 — at the scene, while a 15th person died in hospital weeks later. Public outrage over the tragedy has sparked nationwide protests, with many blaming the deaths on corruption and inadequate oversight of construction projects. In Belgrade, university students marched through the capital
RSS