The Maitree Express was launched between Dhaka an Kolkata in 2008. Credit: Binodkumars via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Political turmoil in Bangladesh has affected cross-border passenger and freight rail with its neighbour, India. 

Just a month after a new trade route was agreed, putting Indian Railways wagons on Bangldeshi tracks, the political situation deteriorated quickly. 

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Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned after mass protests through July and left Dhaka on 5 August. She fled the country and is understood to be in India. 

According to Indian English-language newspaper The Hindu, Indian Railways suspended all cross-border services on the very same day Hasina quit and fled. 

But the train trouble didn’t start when the former prime minister left. The months-long protest movement against Hasina was already disrupting freight and passenger services, according to Bangladeshi officials. 

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The Bangladeshi rail officials had reportedly been in communication with Indian colleagues throughout the trouble, and had cancelled services on numerous occasions. 

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“We are communicating with Bangladeshi officials daily who have verbally informed us they are not in a position to run the trains,” a Rail Ministry source said. 

Along with multiple freight routes, there are three existing passenger services between the two nations. 

The Maitree Express, Mitali Express, and Bandhan Express have all been affected by the cancellations. 

According to The Hindu,there are several hundred freight cars stuck in limbo, either without cargo in India but unable to return, or full of goods ready to be taken to India but stuck in Bangladesh.