Unsafe railroads
If trains keep coming under attack, this is bound to discourage ever more people from using this mode of transport.
The high-intensity bomb was planted on the tracks near a canal, 15 kilometres away from the Thul town of Jacobabad district and was remotely detonated. PHOTO: AFP
Train travel seems to be getting ever more dangerous for people in Pakistan as militants step up attacks on moving trains and tracks. The February 16 bomb atrocity on the Peshawar-bound Khushhal Khan Khattak Express is yet another demonstration of how vulnerable the trains have become as they hurtle towards their destinations with great speed. In the latest appalling act, at least six people were killed, including four children, and two coaches derailed.
The high-intensity bomb was planted on the tracks near a canal, 15 kilometres away from the Thul town of Jacobabad district and was remotely detonated. The bomb weighed 20 kilogrammes, according to the bomb disposal squad. It is sheer good luck that the blast did not take place under the locomotive or it would have thrown all the coaches off track, as the driver of the train has rightly pointed out. The incident comes barely a month after the same train was targeted near Umerkot in Rajanpur district of Punjab. That blast had derailed seven bogeys of the train. At least four people had died in the incident as the Karachi-bound train passed over the explosive material on the track.
These attacks deserve denunciation in the strongest possible terms. As is the ritual, the railways minister condemned this attack, as he did the last time, and sought a report from the officials concerned, besides announcing a compensation of Rs500,000 for the dead. While this indeed is a welcome gesture, the minister, in tandem with the provincial government, should greatly focus on improving security along the railway lines to pre-empt the chances of similar assaults taking place. Safety regulations should be bolstered to deter such attacks. The railways, as an institution, is already counted as a white elephant chalking up losses year after year. If trains keep coming under attack, this is bound to discourage ever more people from using this mode of transport, dragging the railways deeper into the red.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 18th, 2014.
The high-intensity bomb was planted on the tracks near a canal, 15 kilometres away from the Thul town of Jacobabad district and was remotely detonated. The bomb weighed 20 kilogrammes, according to the bomb disposal squad. It is sheer good luck that the blast did not take place under the locomotive or it would have thrown all the coaches off track, as the driver of the train has rightly pointed out. The incident comes barely a month after the same train was targeted near Umerkot in Rajanpur district of Punjab. That blast had derailed seven bogeys of the train. At least four people had died in the incident as the Karachi-bound train passed over the explosive material on the track.
These attacks deserve denunciation in the strongest possible terms. As is the ritual, the railways minister condemned this attack, as he did the last time, and sought a report from the officials concerned, besides announcing a compensation of Rs500,000 for the dead. While this indeed is a welcome gesture, the minister, in tandem with the provincial government, should greatly focus on improving security along the railway lines to pre-empt the chances of similar assaults taking place. Safety regulations should be bolstered to deter such attacks. The railways, as an institution, is already counted as a white elephant chalking up losses year after year. If trains keep coming under attack, this is bound to discourage ever more people from using this mode of transport, dragging the railways deeper into the red.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 18th, 2014.