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.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS