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Samjhauta Express couriers unaware of fake currency

Onkar Singh and Josy Joseph in New Delhi

The Samjhauta Express, the transnational train between India and Pakistan that has survived mayhem and suspicion, is a major smuggling route for fake Indian currency into the country, intelligence agencies warn. The government, however, has decided not to ban the biweekly crowded train, while stepping up security check at the border station of Attari.

The interrogation of passengers, who were arrested recently with huge quantities of fake Indian currency, revealed that they were unaware of the fact that the Indian currency they had on them was fake. In a couple of cases, the packets containing fake currency were handed over to them while in Pakistan and passed off as gifts for friends and relatives in India. Such unsuspecting couriers, used for transporting fake currency and drugs, are becoming a common phenomenon on the Samjhauta Express, investigations by agencies reveal.

According to Union home ministry officials, the biweekly service between India and Pakistan, "would not be terminated under any circumstance." But "precautionary steps to stop smuggling have been taken," a senior official said. The customs inspection at Attari, on the Indian side, has been stepped up, and the government is considering proposals to upgrade the checking system.

The government has also put up multilingual boards at the station asking passengers to exchange their currency at Lahore before entering India. The board warns that carrying of any Indian currency without the Reserve Bank of India's permission while departing from India or entering India is prohibited.

Authorised money changers at the station have also put up boards warning about fake currency.

In several cases, passengers to India have been given fake currency by money changers outside the Lahore railway station, from where the Samjhauta Express begin its journey.

Last week, the authorities arrested Wahid Ahmed, a resident of Delhi's trans-Yamuna area, with Rs 99,000, comprising of Rs 500 notes. Intelligence Bureau officials, who questioned Ahmed, said he was an unsuspecting courier.

Meanwhile, intellectuals have decried the reported move to stop the Samjhauta Express. Novelist Khushwant Singh, author of the famed Train to Pakistan, felt the Express should not be stopped at any cost. Recalling a journey he undertook with his wife, Singh said, "the train has been there from the time I can remember. When I traveled by this train along with my wife sometime back we were the only two people in the entire compartment and a lone policeman stood guard. We stopped for a little while at Attari border and then the train carried on to Lahore. The need is to ensure better security check at the border rather than going in for a drastic step like stopping the historical train."

Former minister of state for external affairs Raghunandan Lal Bhatia, the MP from Amritsar, said the service should not be discontinued. The train, he said, is symbolic of growing people to people contact and that is why it had been named the Samjhauta Express. The veteran Congress leader from Punjab told rediff.com that the termination of the train service would cause immense difficulties to passengers who cannot afford air travel.

Bhatia said the smuggling of fake Indian currency smuggling "is nothing new. It has been going on for over five years, but then it was on a smaller scale. Now the Pakistan government is encouraging youngsters to carry fake currency to India in large amounts. The unsuspecting passengers sometimes do not even know they are carrying fake currency. The need is to step up our own vigilance system, rather than stop the train. There is no train between India and Pakistan plying via Rajasthan, but reports have come in of fake currency being smuggled into India through that border as well."

If the government stops the Samjhauta Express, it could have an unexpected fallout. Sikhs, fleeing Afghanistan, enter India on the Samjhauta Express. In recent days, several Sikh families, who escaped from Afghanistan into Pakistan, have reached India. Many of them have their children married into Indian families. They are hoping to get their visas extended whenever possible and extend their stay here.

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