Railways to refund tickets booked on cancelled Thar Express

Jodhpur, Aug 16 (IANS) As the Thar Link Express connecting Jodhpur to Karachi has been cancelled by the Railway Ministry till further orders, the railways will refund 45 tickets booked till now by passengers who wanted to travel to Pakistan on Saturday on the weekly train, officials said here on Friday.

With this, all rail links between India and Pakistan have been snapped as services on the other train connecting India and Pakistan - Samjhauta Express - have already been suspended.

Speaking to IANS, Gopal Sharma, PRO, Jodhpur Railway division said, "The operations of Thar Express have been suspended till further orders from Railway Ministry. The directions have been issued by the ministry to the North Western Railway on Friday."

"Soon after receiving the orders, we are cancelling the tickets. As of now, 45 tickets have been issued," he said further.

Thar Link Express is a weekly train service which departs from Jodhpur's sub-station Bhagat ki Kothi on Saturday and reaches Munabao, which is the last station on the Indian side before the border. There passengers change trains as a Pakistani train then takes them to Karachi.

Last Saturday, the train departed from Bhagat ki Kothi with 165 passengers and returned with the same number.

Pakistan's Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on August 9 had announced that the day's train would be the last one to Jodhpur soon after Pakistan downgraded diplomatic ties with India after the Indian government scrapped Jammu and Kashmir's special status and divided the state into two Union territories.