It is only after the blast on the Samjhauta Express late on Sunday night and the death of 66 passengers aboard that authorities in Rajasthan are beginning to notice flaws in the security arrangements at stations where theThar Express halts. At Munabao, where the Thar Express Cross Country stops, security is most neglected.

After 1971, the train first ran on February 17, 2006. Now after a break of six months, it resumed service on February 17, 2007. However, Munabao does not have a dog squad yet. The luggage screening machine at the station has been ‘out of order’ for over eight months now. And what comes as the biggest shock is that the Railway Police Force, State Police and the Railway Police Staff deployed at the station do not carry weapons. The reason: there is no store room where the weapons can be kept after duty hours.

The station has only one metal detector which is used by the Customs Department. However, even this, sources say, is not always functional and needs repair from time to time.

“We have sent our representatives to the authorities at least six times to get the machine repaired. But for some reason it has been pending for months now. One cannot expect the Customs officers to go through every piece of luggage manually, and so the checking is superficial,” admitted an official at the station.

A senior Customs officer said that manual checking of luggage is a tedious job especially when passengers carry so much of it. “There are businessmen who carry a lot of goods with them. It is difficult to check every consignment. the station certainly needs better facilities. Home Minister Shivraj Patil, during his trip to the station early this month, had said that facilities at the station need to be upgraded,” the officer said.

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