ATTARI, Nov 9 — Amidst frayed tempers and sloganeering, over 2000 passengers, including Sikh pilgrims and regular Pakistani travellers, finally boarded the Lahore-bound Samjhauta Express late this evening, four hours behind schedule. The Pakistani rake with 15 coaches arrived at 4 p.m. today here with seven extra coaches to accommodate the stranded passengers, much to the relief of Indian officials who had been facing the wrath of the 2000-odd Sikh devotees since Monday.

According to Indian Railway officials, the confirmation of additional coaches came only in the afternoon. This enabled them to send all Sikh pilgrims to Pakistan to participate in the Gurpurb celebrations at Nankana Sahib on November 11.

More than 1000 pilgrims arrived at the station early in the morning at about 2.30 a.m. to catch the train to Lahore. Among the stranded pilgrims were those from Hong Kong, Scotland, Malaysia and Canada.

In the morning, the Immigration and Customs officials claimed that they had cleared all 2000 pilgrims but actually they had cleared only 350.

The 374 regular Pakistan-bound passengers who had missed the Samjhauta Express on Monday due to mismanagement by the Indian officials, were also cleared. All of them, including 20 Muslim families, had been camping outside the railway station.

Talking to TNS, Sikhs from Hong Kong Buta Singh Brar (55) and Harpal Singh Talwandi said they had decided to travel by train to get the feel of their “once homeland and the soil of Sikh Gurus and saints”.

They expressed dismay at the arrangements and the lack of coordination among different government agencies which had left them stranded for the past three days.

The pilgrims pointed out that groups led by prominent persons were given clearance on a priority basis.

Due to poor coordination between the Governments of India and Pakistan, 3200 Sikh devotees had to face uncertainty as only eight coaches from Pakistan arrived at the railway station on Monday since India had not given clearance for the special train.

Former Secretary of the SGPC Manjit Singh Calcutta in a statement here today said he would take up the matter of “discrimination” of Sikh jathas by government agencies with the Human Rights Commission and also with the Minorities Commission.