DNA tests planned to identify train fire victims – Pakistan

MULTAN: While mourning relatives buried some of the 73 people who died in the massive train fire near Rahim Yar Khan, authorities said Friday that forensic experts would conduct DNA tests to identify the majority of the victims.

Ironically, but fortunately without causing casualties, a similar incident took place on Friday in which a Sukkur Express car caught fire, reportedly due to a short circuit.

DNA tests are necessary to identify up to 52 carbonized bodies before they can be handed over to relatives for burial, said Jamil Ahmed, the deputy commissioner of Rahim Yar Khan.

Thursday's tragedy left three Rawalpind-boundi Tezgam Express trainers destroyed.

Survivors said the train took almost 20 minutes to stop, amid conflicting reports about whether the train's brakes and safety cables worked or not.

Many of the victims were members of Tableeghi Jamaat who traveled to Lahore for their annual congregation.

The train carried 857 passengers, including 550 members of the preaching group. Apparently, the fire started in two compartments where members of Tableeghi Jamaat were traveling.

In Sindh, where most of the victims were from, the authorities handed over several identified bodies to their relatives for burial on Friday in the city of Mirpurkhas and elsewhere. Other relatives were seen lining up to give blood samples for DNA testing outside the hospital in Rahim Yar Khan.

The deputy commissioner said forensic teams hope to complete the identification process within 48 hours. He added that authorities were investigating the incident, even why the train took so long to stop.

Sadiue train driver Ahmed Khan insisted that the emergency brakes did not work badly and that the train stopped three minutes after the first fire signals. "This is the worst tragedy in my life as a driver," he said.

In Islamabad, the Minister of Railways, Sheikh Rashid, told reporters that Pakistan Railways had announced compensation of Rs 1.5 million each for the deceased. In addition, he added, the families of the dead would also receive 500,000 rupees each on behalf of the prime minister.

Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said measures will be taken to not allow anyone on board with gas stoves or gas cylinders in the future.

"We admit our mistake and I assure you that next time it won't happen," he said.

In Mirpurkhas, sobbing relatives crowded a government building during the night when the first bodies covered in white cloth began arriving by ambulance from the scene of the disaster.

After Fajr's prayers, with women watching from the nearby rooftops, more than a hundred men attended the first funeral of an auto mechanic named Mohammad Saleem, who was just over 40 years old.

It was held at the Bismillah Mosque, from which at least 42 members of Tableeghi Jamaat had left to board the train a day earlier.

According to officials, while some of the passengers prepared breakfast at dawn on Thursday, two of their gas cylinders exploded, sending flames through three trainers when the train passed near Rahim Yar Khan.

Rescue officials found bodies and some injured passengers along a two-kilometer stretch of track.

Journalists were allowed inside the trainers early Friday. The fire seemed to have burned them completely, with virtually no visible space that was not blackened and charred.

One of them, Car No. 12, mainly transported people from Mirpurkhas, said the city's deputy commissioner, Attaullah Shah.

"There has never been such a tragic incident in Mirpurkhas," he said.

Mirpurkhas commissioner Abdul Waheed Sheikh said that ten of the bodies had been confirmed as residents of the city so far.

Twenty-four residents of Mirpurkhas were among the injured.

But at least another 45 are still missing, he said.

Shah said the government was making arrangements to send the families of the missing Mirpurkhas to the hospital in Rahim Yar Khan, where the bodies were transferred.

Mirpurkhas was largely closed on Friday when companies mourned.

"They were people who can never forget them," said Mohammad Anwar, director of a 57-year-old government school, at Bismillah Mosque.

He said that among his missing was his nephew, as well as the imam of the mosque. Most of those who left the mosque knew each other or lived nearby.

Mahmood Iqbal cried outside his house when he said his two children were missing, a son-in-law was killed and a brother-in-law was injured.

When he looks at his grandchildren, he says, "He can't contain my tears."

“I pray to Allah to come back from nothing. I'm waiting for a miracle, ”he said.

Sabir Hussain Kaimkhani, a member of the railroad committee of the National Assembly, said the accident rate had increased "due to negligence."

He said alarm systems and emergency brakes on many trains were missing or broken, and that passenger cars did not carry fire extinguishers.

Rahmatullah Soomro of Shikarpur adds: A fire broke out in a Sukkur Express bogie near Lodra train station on Friday due to a short circuit. The incident occurred when the train, from Karachi, was about 16 Morries Lodra.

The train stopped after the passengers, who noticed the fire, pulled the emergency chain.

As soon as the train stopped, the residents of the area rushed towards him and began efforts to control the fire in the form of self-help.

No victims were reported.

The fire brigade of the Shikarpur Municipal Committee also arrived at the scene and put out the fire.

Posted on Dawn, November 2, 2019