Nawabshah train accident: Railways minister hints at possible ‘sabotage’

Saad Rafique says accident could be result of a mechanical fault or the fault may have been ‘created’

Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique on Sunday hinted at the possibility of “sabotage” after dozens of people were killed when eight coaches of the Hazara Express train en route from Karachi to Rawalpindi derailed near the Sarhari Railway Station in Nawabshah district.

Around 10 cars of the passenger train were derailed. As a result of the accident, train services to the interior districts of Sindh had been suspended and rescuers were dispatched to the area.

"This is quite a big accident," Saad told reporters. "There can be two reasons: first that it was a mechanical fault, or the fault was created -- it might be a sabotage. We will investigate it."

The railways minister further said that an emergency had been declared at local hospitals.

Read more: At least 30 killed, over 70 injured as train derails near Nawabshah

Meanwhile, Sindh Minister for Information, Transport, and Mass Transit Sharjeel Inam Memon said that an emergency was imposed at the local hospital of Benazirabad district as soon as the information about the incident was received.

Memon said that the entire machinery of the provincial government has been mobilised to the incident site, adding that the critically injured will be transported to Karachi.

The minister further stated that hospitals across all districts, including Sanghar and Nawabshah, have been put on alert.

The Hazara Express is a daily passenger train that leaves Karachi and takes around 33 hours to reach Havelian in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, some 1,600 kilometres north.

Accidents and derailments occur frequently on the country's antiquated railway system, which has nearly 7,500 kilometres (4,600 miles) of track and carries more than 80 million passengers a year.

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 burnt 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.

(With additional input from AFP)