The official robbers of the Thar Express

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Shrabani Mukherjee

28 June, 2011

The train that is supposed to give respite to the passengers as it the second train after Samjhuta Express to run between India and Pakistan gives anguish to them instead. Known as the torture train, customs officers rob passengers.

THIS TRAIN started running in 2006 and was the second bilateral rail link between India and Pakistan. The people who have the misfortune of travelling on it say the customs officials give them a hard time - taking away their money and gold in the name of customs and penalty. For six months, the Indian train named 'Thar Express' crosses the border and for the next six months the train from Pakistan does the same.

Instead of making life easy, this train gives the passengers a difficult time.
Thar Express has to cover the vast expanse of the Thar Desert (hence the name), and as it is the journey is difficult due to the geographical condition. The train, which travels the distance between Jodhpur to Sindh province in Pakistan, has two kinds of passengers, the pilgrims and people who come for personal visit. People who come for personal visit to India is the group that's harassed by these custom officials as they know that these people would carry both cash and jewellery.

Leaving Karachi at 11 p.m. every Friday, the train is scheduled to arrive in Jodhpur by 9: 30 pm Saturday night, making it an almost 12-hour journey. However, the reality is far removed as the train always arrives 10 hours late, due to a thorough customs check on both sides of the border. These officers literally strip each and every bag in order to find things “to levy customs charges" on them.

A reputed news agency has reported the various complaints arising from the passengers of this train. The train is better known as ‘torture train’ owing to the various incidents that have taken place right under the nose of both the country’s government. A woman who was coming to India to get her daughter married faced the shock of her life when the customs officer took all the gifts, jewellery and money she was carrying with her to India saying that she would get them back only after she had paid the 35 per cent tax.

A similar fate was met by a man who had sold off his house in Pakistan to start a new life in India. He was also carrying 8 lakh rupees with him but at the end of the trip he only got 3.5 lakh as the rest was confiscated by the customs officers under the pretext of custom charges and penalty.

Khoob Chand, another passenger also recounted an incident of his relative’s mangalsutra being opened to see if it was 24-carat gold. The officer told Chand that, “The tax is on the gold you carry, it is not to be applied on the jewellery you wear. Do they do the same thing at airports?”

This happens on both the sides of the border. Gievn what happens on the train, one say that customs officials are no less then robbers - the only difference being that they officially rob people.

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COMMENTS (1)

i thought journalists are supposed to verify facts before putting together articles. if u had u would have found that all incidents mentioned above are utter lies. pls check Customs rules and regulations wrt thar express before passing such judgements...and how exactly does one "open a mangalsutra"