It is going to be a lonely ride through the night for the first nine Pakistanis who crossed over to identify their loved ones killed in the blast on the Samjhauta Express. Intelligence officials said the group, which reached Wagah from Lahore and Karachi, finally boarded a mini-bus from for Panipat at 7.45 pm tonight.

“They should be in Panipat around 4 am. In fact, we expected more people from Pakistan to join them in the bus, but no one else turned up. We finally let the bus go at 7.45 pm as the nine passengers were getting restless,” said an Intelligence official.

The nine, include Sham Lal, a Hindu from Sialkot, who said he saw two of his injured relatives, Ashok and Ramesh, on a news channel. “They are undergoing treatment at Safdarjang Hospital in Delhi,” said Lal who also knew their bed numbers.

“Khuda kare vo sirf jakhmi hee ho (I hope he is only injured),” prays Mehmood Akhtar, a Lahore resident, as he walked in through the joint border checkpost to find his uncle Abdul Majid who was on the train. Mehmood said he was happy to have got the visa so quickly. “Now I only hope my uncle is safe and sound. Otherwise, what will I tell my family back home,” he wrings his hands before boarding the bus.

Like him, many others said they have been on tenterhooks since the news of the terror strike trickled in. “There is a long list of missing persons at the Lahore railway station, I am on a mission to find my wife’s relatives,” said Shahzad who was here with Asif Bhatt to find out 15 of their relatives.

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