Train inferno: 13 passengers from Mirpurkhas remain missing

District administration of Rahimyar Khan to complete identifying the deceased soon, says Mirpurkhas DC

HYDERABAD: Although almost three weeks have passed since the Liaquatpur incident, nine persons from Mirpurkhas district who boarded the Tezgam Express to attend a religious congregation in Raiwand remain missing. A delegation of the families of the missing persons led by local ulema met Mirpurkhas Deputy Commissioner Zahid Memon on Monday to seek the government's help to trace the persons or locate their bodies. Memon said that he had contacted the district administration of Rahimyar Khan, Punjab, again and they had assured him that the identification of the bodies in their hospitals would be completed soon. The missing men include Aijaz Memon, Muhammad Iqbal, Jan Muhammad Solangi, Aurangzeb Khurram, Faseeur Rehman, Javed Adil and others. The DC assured the families that they are trying to trace the missing and if they are among the dead, their bodies will be brought back at the earliest. According to

him, the DNA test to identify Faseeur Rehman's body has not been done because his family is out of the country. The families that met the DC told the local media that they have provided their DNA samples for identification but the process is being delayed for unknown reasons. Official sources from the DC's office told The Express Tribune that the process of compensation has also not begun as yet.

Meanwhile, sources in the Pakistan Railways have informed that they have received claims of about 14 missing passengers from all of Sindh. The Tezgam Express caught fire on Oct 31 and the raging blaze burnt three bogies of the train, killing 73 passengers. A majority of them belonged to Mirpurkhas and Umerkot districts. As many as 13 victims of the incident were laid to rest in Mirpurkhas and Umerkot districts on November 1 and 24 more were laid to rest on November 7.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2019.