Rail services from Karachi will resume on Monday, four days after rioters torched trains and uprooted tracks following the killing of Benazir Bhutto, a minister said.
The violence in the wake of Bhutto's death has caused tens of millions of dollars in damage, the interior ministry has said, with hundreds of shops, offices and banks burnt out, along with railway stations and more than 70 trains.
"From Monday evening train service from Karachi for the upcountry will be resumed," Railway Minister Tariq Mansoor told AFP, referring to links to northern cities such as the capital Islamabad and Lahore.
Mansoor put the initial estimate of losses caused to the rail network at 12 billion rupees (19 million dollars), saying 20 train engines and 140 coaches were destroyed in unrest.
The railway infrastructure including communications and signal systems has been totally wrecked between Karachi and Sukkur, but makeshift arrangements will be made to allow the running of passenger trains, he said. Four daily trains will depart from Karachi, compared to eight before the unrest, he added. Violent protests have left at least 38 people dead and more than 50 injured across the country since Bhutto was killed at a campaign rally in Rawalpindi on Thursday.
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