Pakistan Railways (PR) on Thursday suspended temporarily the operation of 11 sets of trains with aim to divert ceased rakes on the major tracks of the country. According the Pakistan Railways the operation of 11 trains was suspended to make available the rakes to run them on major sections due to shortage of passenger coaches.
The suspended trains, include 5-UP/6-DN Sindh Express (Karachi-Lahore), 29-UP/30-DN Shah Rukn-e-Allam (Karachi-Multan), 119-UP/120-DN Pakpattan Express (Lahore-Samasatta), 129-UP/130-DN Thal Express (Multan-Rawalpindi), 157-UP/158-DN Express (Hyderabad-Mirpur Sindh), 231-UP/232-DN Passenger (Lahore-Faisalabad-Shorkot), 239-UP/240-DN Passenger (Shorkot-Sargodha), 247-UP/248-DN Passenger (Faisalabad-Sargodha-Lalamusa), 265-UP/266-DN Passenger (Rawalpindi-Attock City) 323-UP/324-DN Sultan Bahu (Lahore-Shorkot) and KM-1UP/MK2-DN Shuttle (Wazir Mansion-Malir).
PR had to suspend its train service due to the fact that in certain areas of Sindh, the Railway assets including trains, tracks, locomotives, bridges, level crossings, communication towers and other operational instruments came under severe attack by angry mobs after assassination of PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto on December 27, 2007.
The riots cost PR billions of rupees as the miscreants burnt and damaged over 63 railway stations, 29 locomotives, 31 level crossings, 170 coaches, 18 bridges and 5 cranes. The other items included 27 block instruments and one VHF tower between Rohri and Sukkur causing complete disruption in Railways communication between Sindh and parts of the country.
At 16 different locations, the rail tracks were either up-rooted or badly damaged by the mobs, bringing the train operations at halt in Karachi and Sukkur divisions of Sindh.
The PR staff is actively pursuing to restore the train service on various major sections of the country as so far around ten express trains between Peshawar, Lahore, Karachi, Quetta and Faisalabad have been restored on one hand. While on the other it has been striving to put back the goods and oil stock on the rails.