Karachi:
The death count in Monday’s train collision in Pakistan’s Sindh province rose to 62 on Tuesday, according to media reports, even as the Opposition parties demanded an instant probe into the motives for one of the country’s worst train accidents.
At least 62 individuals had been killed and more than one hundred other people injured in the twin accidents in between Reti and Daharki railway stations exactly where eight carriages of Millat Express derailed just ahead of Sir Syed Express rammed into them close to Dharki, a city situated in the Ghotki district of upper Sindh early Monday morning.
The rescue operation was completed and the track has been cleared immediately after retrieving 17 coaches that had been broken by the crash and the engine of the train, Geo News quoted as saying Divisional Superintendent, Railway Sukkur Tariq Latif.
“The up and down track has been restored. We have received orders to resume train service,” he stated.
According to ARY News, the death count in the Ghotki train accident has surged to 62 though more than one hundred persons sustained injuries.
Minister for Railways Azam Swati stated if his resignation meant the dead can come back to life, he was prepared to do so even as he promised a complete inquiry.
He stated that train tracks in the Sukkur Division had been in poor situation.
“We have to find out now who is responsible for this accident,” he stated.
The deadly accident occurred when the Sir Syed Express headed from Rawalpindi to Karachi, coming from the other path, smashed into derailed coaches of the very first train in the adjacent track, a spokesperson of Pakistan Railways stated.
“The driver tried to apply emergency brakes but the locomotive hit the infringing coaches,” the railways stated in an initial report.
Rescuing trapped passengers was a “challenge” for the rescue officials who had to employ heavy machinery to free of charge individuals. The efforts had been hampered by lack of proper cutters.
Meanwhile, Chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari demanded an instant inquiry into the train tragedy.
He stated that ever because the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan came into energy in 2018, train tragedies have turn out to be more frequent, though government’s ministers are busy carrying out politics more than them.
Other Opposition parties, which includes the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) on Monday demanded a parliamentary debate more than the accident.
The convener of the standing committee’s sub-committee on railways, Ramesh Lal, and MQM’s Sabir Hussain Kaim Khani admitted that the railways authorities failed to take timely action in spite of becoming repeatedly apprised of the poor train-security.
Train accidents are prevalent in Pakistan and dozens of individuals drop their lives each year. The railways have seen decades of decline due to graft, mismanagement and lack of investment.
According to a senior former railways official, such accidents occur from time to time all more than Pakistan as the railways network remains outdated in several locations.
“In some areas, they are still using the same network and tracks which were laid before the Partition,” one former official stated.
In July 2020, at least 20 individuals had been killed when the Shah Hussain Express train rammed into a coaster close to Sheikhupura in Punjab.
Around 30 individuals had been travelling on the car from Nankana Sahib to Peshawar, out of whom 13 males and seven females died in the accident. The dead integrated 19 Sikh pilgrims and the driver of the car.
This incident came 4 months immediately after a bus crossing an unmanned railway crossing close to Rohri in Sindh was crushed by the Lahore-bound Pakistan Express train coming from Karachi on February 28, 2020, killing at least 19 individuals and leaving more than 30 injured.
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