Pakistan suspends final rail link to India over Kashmir dispute

FILE PHOTO: An India-bound passenger boards a Thar Express train at a railway station in Karachi

By Asif Shahzad

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan said on Friday it will halt the last train service running to India, after New Delhi revoked special status for its portion of the Kashmir region claimed by both countries.

"We have decided to shut down the Thar Express as well," Pakistan's railways minister Sheikh Rasheed told reporters, in reference to the weekly service running between the towns of Khokrapar in Pakistan and Monabao in India.

"As long as I am railways minister, no train will operate between Pakistan and India."

(Reporting by Asif Shahzad, editing by Alasdair Pal)