Background: India-Pakistan peace train attacked for first time

Feb 19, 2007, 10:27 GMT

New Delhi - The Samjhauta Express, a symbol of improving Indian and Pakistani ties, on Monday was attacked for the first time since it began its operations more than three decades ago.

Improvised bombs were detonated, causing a fire to sweep through two of the train's carriages, killing at least 66 people and injuring 60. Indian officials blamed terrorists looking to disrupt Indian-Pakistani peace efforts.

The train service, launched in July 1976, is the oldest train link between India and Pakistan, which both gained their independence from British rule in 1947.

It has been discontinued twice since its inception, the first time in the mid-1980s during a militant movement in India's western state of Punjab.

It was also severed in 2002 after bilateral relations deteriorated following a terrorist attack on India's Parliament in December 2001, which New Delhi alleged was supported by Pakistan.

The Samjhauta Express, also known as a friendship train, was resumed in January 2004, three months after India and Pakistan agreed on starting a peace dialogue.

Considered by analysts as a barometer of bilateral ties, the Samjhauta Express is one of the two train services linking the two neighbours and caters to the poor and economically weaker sections of the two countries.

The neighbours also operate the Thar Express, which links India's Rajasthan with Pakistan's Sindh province.

Indian Railway Minister Lalu Yadav said terrorists had carried out Monday's attack with the aim of disrupting the peace parleys between New Dehli and Islamabad.

India and Pakistan, which have gone to war three times, started their train and bus links to serve as 'confidence-building measures' that would encourage better contact between the two populations as they continue with the peace talks to resolve contentious issues, such as their competing claims to Kashmir.