Confusion prevailed at the station here as people tried to find out details about the arrival and departure of several trains from the inquiry counters.

According to reports, trains scheduled to arrive at the station here will halt at other stations till the tracks are cleared. The derailment also hampered the timings of incoming trains including Frontier Mail, Hardwar Passenger, Chattisgarh Express, Hawarh Mail and Duplicate Hawarh. These have been stopped on way at nearby stations.

The USA suspended military links with India and Pakistan after they carried out nuclear tests in 1998, but ties were resumed with both nations, especially after they supported U.S. forces fighting in Afghanistan.

The exercise involves Indian army para-commandos, U.S. special forces from its Asia-Pacific command and aircraft from both countries. "The best thing we get out of this is coming here and training together, learning about each other, learning about each other's capabilities. Learning about each others' methods for training and conducting training. That's what we really get out of this. We share ideas," a U.S Defence official told reporters on Thursday.

J.P. Singh, an Indian defence official, said the exercices would help both sides to achieve cohesiveness in military operations. "The basic objectives of this training will be to achieve cohesiveness in operations that may be carried out jointly at any point of time," he added.

The exercise was a "first" for the two armies, although there has been some contact between Indian and U.S. navies in the past. Details on the number of soldiers participating in the mid-May exercise, around 650 km (400 miles) from the Pakistan border and to last about a week, were unavailable.

Thousands of Indian and Pakistan troops have been massed along the border, a build-up that follows an attack on India's Parliament in December which New Delhi blames on Kashmiri separatists based in Pakistan.

Carrying anti-Pakistan and anti-terrorism placards, several Shiv Sena activists shouted slogans against Islamabad for the dastardly act.

On Tuesday some unidentified militants had killed seven persons in a public transport bus, and later barged into a nearby Army camp killing another 28 persons, including defence personnel and their family members. As many as ten children aged between four and ten were killed in the worst ever massacre in past eight months.

The gruesome attack stoked fears of a war between India and Pakistan, which have been locked in a border standoff since last December.

President of Delhi wing of Shiv Sena Jai Bhagwan Goel said New Delhi should strongly retaliate to the latest act of terrorism. He said, "this attack is an example of harsh and brutal face of terrorism. Our Army is fully prepared on the border but they can not act unless they receive instructions from the higher authorities. For how long shall we put up with such atrocities? It's high time we thought of doing something to bring an end to this".

Political parties and the people in general should stand united and reconciled as one nation, he said in an interview with The News.

Ijaz also predicted that non-party elections may be held if Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif insisted on returning to Pakistan. He disagreed with the view that the elected governments had no power as the army controlled them from behind the scene. This, according to him, was an exuse of out-of-power politician. "Nawaz Sharif was powerful enough to motivate attack on Supreme Court, repeal the 8th Amendment and cause an army chief to resign. These prove that he was a powerful Prime Minister". Ijaz further said that Benazir Bhutto recently wrote a letter to the army, seeking reconciliation with it. The PPP leader, he claimed, said she was willing accept President Pervez Musharraf and reconcile with the ground realities.

Meanwhile, Information Minister Nisar A Memon said in Islamabad that Pakistani army was ready to defend every inch of the country against enemy attack.