A day after the fatal incident of the Hazara Express derailment near Nawabshah in which 34 passengers were killed and over 80 others got injured, the railways authorities restored the down track for traffic on Monday. The authorities have completed the identification of 29 dead bodies and handed them over to their heirs. Seven bodies have been dispatched to Tando Adam, two to Sadiqabad, two to Multan, and 18 bodies sent to Sindh. All the dead bodies have been salvaged from the ill-fated train bogies. According to rail authorities, the down track has been restored while work on the up track restoration is underway.

The Pakistan Army and Rangers officials participated in the rescue efforts. The helicopters of Army Aviation also took part in the rescue operation. Several carriages of Hazara Express train derailed on Sunday near Sirhari railway station, situated between Nawabshah and Shahzadpur. “This is quite a big accident,” Minister of Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique told reporters. Rafique said at least 1,000 passengers were aboard the train when it derailed on a section of track where no faults had been reported.

 Senior police officer Abid Baloch said 30 bodies had been recovered and more than 60 people were injured, some critically. He said the death toll could rise as rescue operations continue. Images posted to local media show dozens of people at the site, with some smashing windows to help passengers climb out of the twisted carriages and at least one coach overturned. There were chaotic scenes at the Nawabshah Trauma Centre as ambulances and private cars ferried the injured for treatment.

One man leapt from the back of an ambulance clutching a child, his clothes soaked in blood, while a woman moaned in pain as she was carried in on a stretcher. “We don’t know what happened, we were just sitting inside,” said one dazed woman. At the accident site outside Nawabshah, dozens of cars, tractors, rickshaws and motorcycles could be seen parked on a road that runs alongside the track. Volunteers were wading through a canal that separates the road from the railway line to help, and lifting the injured to get them assistance.

The Hazara Express is a daily passenger train that leaves the port city of Karachi in the south and takes around 33 hours to reach Havelian in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, some 1,600km (994 miles) north. The Railways authorities have confirmed the death of 30 people and released a list of names of some of the dead persons. The dead included: Razia Bibi r/o Tando Adam, Syedan Bibi, Mrs Saira, Soha, Raheem, Ghulam Sughran, Haseena, Syeda, Nasreen r/o Rahim Yar Khan, Parveen r/o Hyderabad, Shazia, Aneela, Ayan r/o Benazirabad, Alia, Sharifan Bibi r/o Shahdadpur, Yasir s/o Rehman, Yasir s/o Danial, Mir Chand r/o Ghotki, Sughra Mai, Noor Din r/o Sadiqabad, Mansoor r/o Multan, Yasir r/o Sanghar, Sahib Khan, Muhammad Sharif, Shoaib Khan, Khair Muhammad, Naila d/o Muhammad Nasir and r/o Dadu, and Naila w/o Muhammad Kashif.

Accidents and derailments occur frequently on Pakistan’s antiquated railway system. In June 2021, two trains collided near Daharki in Sindh, killing at least 65 people and injuring about 150 others. In that accident, an express derailed onto the opposite track, and a second passenger train crashed into the wreckage roughly a minute later. At least 75 passengers burned to death in a fire aboard the Tezgam express train in October 2019, while a two-train collision at Ghotki killed more than 100 people in 2005.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)