At least 40 people died after 2 express trains collided in a horrific accident in Pakistan after which Pakistan army had to be called in for relief work. According to officials the two trains that collided injured hundreds of people that were onboard. One of the trains was traveling in Sindh and had derailed to a different track. The other train which was carrying several passengers then collided with the former and overturned.
According to Reuters, a senior official called Usman Abdullah said how it was difficult to ascertain just how many people were inside the train when it overturned.
“There are about six to eight bogies [carriages] that are totally smashed… there is a sleeper train, AC [air conditioned] class, as well as economy class, in which there were between 47 to 50 people on this side and around 50 to 60 people on the other train,”
-Abdullah said.
Pakistan PM Imran Khan ‘Shocked’, Initiates Probe
After the spine-chilling incident, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan took to Twitter and said how he was shocked and further promised a probe into the matter. “Shocked by the horrific train accident at Ghotki early this morning leaving 30 passengers dead. Have asked Railway Minister to reach site & ensure medical assistance to injured & support for families of the dead. Ordering comprehensive investigation into railway safety faultlines,” PM Khan wrote.
Shocked by the horrific train accident at Ghotki early this morning leaving 30 passengers dead. Have asked Railway Minister to reach site & ensure medical assistance to injured & support for families of the dead. Ordering comprehensive investigation into railway safety faultlines
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) June 7, 2021
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As of now the cause of the derailment is unclear although the footage after the incident shows how the large train coaches had overturned, proving the fact that the train had in fact derailed. After the incident, relief workers were sent as several people inside the coaches were thought to have remained trapped. A spokesperson from the country’s railway department was quoted by international news agency AFP saying-
“The site is far and that’s why we are facing some trouble in the rescue work.”
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How did the crash happen?
As per the news aggregated so far, On Monday early morning 3.30 AM the Milat Express and the Sir Syed Express collided due to the fact that the former had derailed a few minutes before the derailment. According to Usman Abdullah, Ghotki Deputy Commissioner, the cause of derailment is unclear, however the driver of Sir Syed Express claimed that he had pushed brakes when he saw the other train had derailed but due to lack of time, the collision could not be avoided. As per the officials over 1,100 passengers were travelling on both the trains and so far, hundreds of them have been reported injured.
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The Disastrous track record of Pakistani trains
Pakistan in the past few years has been infamous for being the country with several train accidents one after the other. In July 2020, a train crash took away the lives of 21 persons. In the crash, a van of Sikh pilgrims was ran over by a running train that was on its way from Karachi to Lahore.
In 2019, a gas cylinder accident led to a fire in a train. The accident took lives of over 70 passengers who were onboard to travel from Karachi to Rawalpindi. Just a few months earlier in the same year, as many as 20 people were killed in a train crash.
To give our readers a context to how bad the situation is, we would like to report that according to Pakistan Railways data, between 2012-2017 a staggering 757 train accidents have been reported. This means that in 12 months, over 125 accidents were reported.
