About 15,000 passengers, mostly Vaishnodevi pilgrims, are stranded at Jammu railway station due to disruption in rail services in the wake of violent protests in some parts of Punjab over the attack on a sect leader in Vienna.
Railways cancelled 19 trains passing through Jammu after
violence broke out in Jalandhar and other neighbouring districts of Punjab on Monday, official sources said in Jammu.
Most of the passengers include Vaishnodevi pilgrims returning after paying their obeisance at the cave shrine of Mata Vaishnodevi.
Two social organisations and the state unit of Vishwa Hindu Parishad have organised community kitchens at the railway station since Monday to provide food for the stranded pilgrims.
The number of stranded passengers is likely to go up as pilgrims are continuing to return from Vaishnodevi shrine as also other people, who were scheduled to leave from Jammu station to other parts of the country.
Several hundred passengers have already left for Delhi and other stations through alternative modes of road transport.