Train crash victims laid to rest

Tando Adam town in Sanghar district wore a sombre look on Monday as 10 of the 30 persons who lost their lives in Hazara Express accident on Sunday, were laid to rest in separate funerals.

Five of the deceased belonged to the same family. A child, seven women and two men belonged to this small semi-rural town.

The Namaz-e-Janaza of three-year-old Hasseena, her mother Sain Bibi Bozdar, Aaqil Zadi Bozdar, Soonh Bozdar and Raheem Bux Bozdar were offered in village Khair Muhammad. The other victims belonging to the town include Razia Khilji, Saeedan Ghulam Nabi, Sughran Manzoor Behan, Asif Shaikh and Laung Bheel, who all lived in separate areas of Tando Adam.

According to the commissioner Nawabshah division Muhammad Abbass Baloch, bodies of 27 out of 30 dead were handed over to the families while the identity of the two deceased persons is still not known. Three bodies are kept in the morgue of Peoples Medical University Hospital in Nawabshah.

He informed that 64 injured passengers of the train were shifted to the PMU from the site of the accident, which is around 30 kilometers away from Nawabshah. Among them, he added, 42 were discharged by Sunday night while 22 are still under treatment in the hospital.

Meanwhile, the engineers of the Pakistan Railways restored the damaged down track and reopened it for the railway traffic over 18 hours after the accident. The uptrack, however, is still being repaired.

According to the preliminary investigation report, the civil and mechanical wings of the PR have been held responsible for the accident in which 10 out of 19 bogies of Hazara Express derailed at Dadwah, a water distributary around 1.5 kilometers away from Sarhari town.

The report, submitted in the head office in Lahore, pointed out that the track was damaged and there was a problem in the train engine's wheel. The fishplates, which are used to connect the two tracks, were also found missing.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 8^th, 2023.