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Hello and welcome to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service. Today we go back to 2008 when a passenger train service between Bangladesh and India ran for the first time in over... The route had been suspended in 1965,

the route had been suspended in 1965,

following a war between India and Pakistan,

of which Bangladesh was then apart.

Dr. Azad Jotri was on the Moitry Express or the Friendship Express

for the first journey of the rebooted service from Dhaka and Bangladesh to

Kolkata in India. In 2022 he told Fahanahiva about the hope and

spectacle of that day.

Motry train journey

and was an excellent experience.

A motry train journey was an excellent experience. A motry train journey was an excellent experience.

I felt very emotional and nostalgic.

It was like going back in time to when the two Bengals were won.

The undivided Bengal. Bangladesh and India's Bengal state were one. The undivided Bengal.

Bangladesh and India's Bengal state were for centuries two halves of a united Bengal,

with Kolkata as its main city.

...