Just about three years ago, after my father passed away, I got this urge to travel from Lawrence School/Ooty (where my son was then in the 12th) to Lawrence School/Murree (which my father used to speak about). Cricket visas were easy to obtain, and Virender Sehwag was in full form, so it made the exercise worth the effort. We did the Ooty to Delhi leg by roadup to Pune, then flew Pune-Delhi, and did the rest by train / bus / and taxi. At the end of it, we eventually did not get to Murree, but at least we tried, and made it to the foothills outside the contradiction in time that is Islamabad/Rawalpindi.
We went through the usual experiences that travelling across the sub-continent involves. Good, bad and outright ugly. Large dollops of nostalgia ensured that we overlooked the tough and unsavoury bits. You can read aboutthat here.. Most parts I would do again, and some I have too, but the one I would never go through again would be the train journey from Old Delhi to Lahore. I would especially never wish to re-visit the twin hell-holes that were—and still are — Attari (India) and Wagah (Pakistan) railway stations. Even with "media" protection, it is just not something I would do again, or encourage.
Of this complete convoluted journey, the train journey from Old Delhi to Lahore stands out, even now, as the bottom, the pits, the enduring symbol of the real rot that transit between India and Pakistan really was and still is. Probably not changed in attitudes since 1947. Mind you, this was at a time when the Bangalore - Pune Highway was still being re-constructed under the Golden Quadrilateral project, and apart from being a nightmare to drive on, was subjected to heavy "checking" since the car we were driving was loaded to every corner as well as on the roof with the trunks and other odds and ends that make up for boarding school existence, and at more than one place I had to fight not to payoctroi on books and bedrolls.
To start with, the platform at Old Delhi—on the Fatehpuri end—from where the Indian Railways part of the train shoved off was in total darkness. The station was crawling with all sorts of "authorities", cops, intelligence, railways, the works. Even the parking attendant was into the scam games there. They couldn't give ashit about who was doing what on that "international departure" platform. What they were all after was simply this:identify the "professional travellers", those carrying commercial goods back to Pakistan, and get their cuts from them. There was no bar or restriction on anybody and everybody entering or leaving the train. If there was any checking on that platform, then I did not see it. Hassling people, sure, plenty.
As a matter of fact, while en route, there were more than a few people on board who saw this as a fast non-stop means to travel from Delhi to the Amritsar/Attari area. In any case, the train made a few unscheduled "technical" halts, and slowed down at other places. And at Attari, the ends of the platform were open territory for anybody to walk in and out of,anyway. I know, on the way back we cleared Immigration and Customs, and with a bit of"goodwill", were off towards Amritsar by taxi, to get back to Delhi one night earlier by the faster Shatabdi Express.
Next, the wagons were not supplied with the all-important "charts", till afterthe train moved off. Which meant, you grabbed whatever berths you could. Many of them were unlit, all of them were unwashed, and ticket-checking was prominent by itsabsence. So, for the first few hours, pretty much everybody was "adjusting", and if there was baggage that was left unattended or did not belong to anybody, then surely it was well past Panipat before anybody would notice.
And as for Attari and Wagah stations, believe me—anything could happen, and probably still happens, there for a price. Wide open, wild west. As anex-shippie, I have an eye and a nose for all this, and with a beard as well as a physique that could pass of for either side of the border, I pretty much figured out the rackets at both places. To give you an example, I have never been more afraid that the page holding my US and UK visas in my passport wouldvanish than at these border posts. In addition, you just had to observe how the whole bunch including the very obvious "intelligence" sorts at both ends were very much part of every racket. They probably tipped each other off, too, since mobile networks from both sides worked very well at both stations even then.
I have had opportunities to go to this platform at Old Delhi again, as well as interact with people who have used this train, and things have not changed. So when I heard that bombs went off on the Samjhauta Express last night, I just knew that this was inevitable, and for what it is worth—we had it coming. Most of the commercial goods from India towards Pakistan are medicines, plastic goods and lately, all sorts of chemicals. Nobody cares what is inside those suitcases or gunny sacks, anyway. Any minor fire or explosive would have a ready cocktail of fire-supporting "goods" on board.As they obviously did.
For those who have travelled India-Pakistan by bus or by air, the difference in security drills is immense, and symptomatic. But more than anything else, despite all the statements banning people from carrying more than 35 kilos or whatever, the railway train went almost totally unsupervised. Yes, there were so many people from so many "forces" detailed on this route, but thereality is something that only people who travel on the train would know about.
The complete Samjhauta Express scenario as it operates now, with a full night for the bad guys and their cohorts to create havoc between Delhi and Attari, as well as on the way back, is all about smuggling between India and Pakistan, if I may say so here, and the sooner it is re-evaluated as a simple day train between Amritsar and Lahore, with standard day commuter coaches without toilets that do not permit all this night travel and options to hide things, the better. Let people reach Amritsar on their own steam, and then do the border crossing in railway wagons that have absolutely no place to hide stuff, like the metro rail or local train coaches.
And let the "checking" at the India-end be done by non-locals. The earlier the better. Let the train crew come from Warangal, or Salem, and not Bhagat-ki-Kothi or Kalka. At the end of the day, I am a Punjabi, and so are the guys on the other side, we often speak not just the same language but also the same dialects and share the same surnames, and that is what is at the root of everything. About time we accepted this factand placed non-local police on duty at Attari, like is done for the bad guys at Tihar Jail,so that the nexus can at least be weakened a bit.
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And if we really must have a train between Delhi and Attari, how difficult isit for a proper security-drill to be followed, as it is for air-travel? Sincethe train is supposed to travel almost non-stop, how difficult is it to get thenames and passport details of the people travelling even in the general non-reservedcoaches?
