Old, Raw Nerve

They still remember those days. Qureshi recalls, "Before 1965, I used to hang around at the Khokhrapar station as my father was in the railway police. On August 15, the Indian train would come decorated with banana leaves and the passengers would toss fruits at us." But nostalgia is also tinged with the memories of the 1971 war. Then, the Indian army had crossed the border here, and villagers claim they were mistreated and many were killed. Yet, this hasn't ebbed the popular enthusiasm for the train. My driver Mohammad Urs' response is typical, "I want to go and see my uncle in Rajasthan in the new train but I have no passport."

The journey across the border is likely to be cumbersome. The train from India will stop at Zero Point, and the passengers will go through custom and immigration formalities before boarding the Pakistani train. "No one knows where the passengers will disembark. But the double-gauge track can take them all the way to Karachi," says Qureshi. Passengers won't be allowed to get off the train other than at those stations agreed upon earlier.

Sindhis here fear Urdu-speaking Indians could simply tear their passports and mingle among the people here. "To increase its votebank, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement will help them get identity cards. We may be reduced to a minority," says advocate Pir Abdul Rehman Sarhandi. It was at Mirpur Khas that Altaf Hussain, riding on the support of Mohajirs, or refugees, had launched the mqm to carve out a political space for himself.