Disasters & Accidents

Pakistan buries train crash victims as probe gets underway

Islamabad, Aug 7 (EFE).- Families of train crash victims buried their loved ones on Monday as an investigation got underway to find the cause of the tragic incident that killed at least 30 passengers, said officials.

Three bodies are still at a hospital awaiting their families to identify.

“We have handed over 27 bodies to their families and three are still at the Peoples Medical Hospital in Nawabshah,” medical facility head Aqeel Ahmed told EFE.

The yet-to-be-identified bodies are those of a child, a woman, and a man.

The hospital chief said 23 injured were still receiving treatment at the facility, and three were critical.

Hazara Express derailed near Nawabshah in Sindh province on Sunday, killing 30 people and wounding 80.

The local media said families buried their victims before Monday morning in their hometowns.

Police officer Ashraf Zardari said the rescue operation ended before midnight on Sunday.

“Two tracks were damaged because of the accident and one has been restored and work on the other is undergoing,” Zardari told EFE.

The officer said a coupling failure caused the accident.

“Investigations are underway what led to the breaking of the hook or if there was something else involved,” he said.

Railway Minister Saad Rafique said on Sunday that the possibility of “sabotage” could not be ruled out.

“There can be two reasons: first that it was a mechanical fault, or the fault was created. It might be sabotage. We will investigate,” he told reporters in Islamabad.

Train accidents are frequent in Pakistan, which has an antiquated railway network dating back to the British Empire. The country became independent in 1947.

Adding to its antiquated infrastructure is the threat of attacks by insurgent groups, such as one in February when a separatist group detonated a bomb on a moving train that killed at least one woman and injured seven other people.

In 2021, a collision between two trains in southern Pakistan resulted in 62 deaths.

In October 2019, a massive fire killed 73 people when a gas cylinder used by some passengers to prepare breakfast exploded on a train in southern Pakistan. EFE

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