KARACHI, Dec 28: Road, rail and air transport out of Karachi was severely disrupted on Friday as thousands of people intending to travel out of the city failed to do so when life came to a standstill in the wake of Pakistan People’s Party chairperson and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination at the end of an election rally in Rawalpindi on Thursday.
Intercity road and train transport remained almost nil till late Friday night due to the violence that erupted on Thursday evening and stretched into Friday in different cities of the province after news of Ms Bhutto’s killing spread.
Local intracity public transport, including buses, taxis and rickshaws, as well as private vehicles, also stayed off the roads keeping the prevailing situation in view.
A railway official at Karachi said that almost 40 up and down trains could not run on schedule during the last 24 hours ending at 8pm on Friday. “We have very clear directives from the railways chairman from Lahore not to move any of the trains till further orders,” the official added, saying that there were reports of ransacking of railway stations at various sites across the province at the hands of enraged mobs.
However, the official failed to identify the places and stations where trains had been stuck after violence. “We are not in a position to communicate with other stations due to the collapse of the communications system,” he said, claiming that passengers are, however, safe as they have been offloaded by railway authorities and the local administrations concerned.
He said that it was not possible to predict when the train service would be restored from Karachi or when and how the Karachi bound passengers would complete their journey.
He said that passengers who could not travel out of Karachi on Thursday and Friday or those who had booked seats for Dec 29 and 30 had been allowed cash refunds against their bookings. Railway stations at Karachi had no passengers on Friday in the wake of the uncertain law and order situation and the non-availability of transport, the official added.
However, families expecting their relatives or near and dear ones to reach Karachi through trains on Thursday remained perplexed in the absence of proper information on the condition of the trains.
A university teacher said on Friday that she remained tense for hours to know the whereabouts of a couple of her female associates who were seen off on the Karachi Express on Thursday.
“After a lot of efforts, only this evening I found out that the train has been stopped near Mehrabpur, while the stranded passengers were being assisted by the local bodies’ representatives,” the teacher added.
It was learnt that a number of trains have been attacked and damaged by hooligans in Karachi and Sukkur divisions, while railway stations including Kotri, Nawabshah, Kashmore, Gaddar, Dadu, Jungshahi, Jhampir, Tandojam and Tando Adam have been set ablaze, resulting in the collapse of the communications system between the stations.
Intercity buses also could not operate on Friday due to trouble on the National and Super Highway.
Flights postponed
The arrivals of a number of PIA domestic and international flights, including a Haj flight from Jeddah, were postponed for almost 10 hours in the wake of disturbances in the city.
A PIA spokesman said that flights resumed operations at all airports in the country around 6am on Friday. A Haj flight carrying about 400 passengers, including 116 with their final destinations at Multan and Faisalabad, which was supposed to land at Karachi late on Thursday night was delayed and advised to land after 5am Friday.
Giving an account of PIA’s flight operations, the spokesman said that some of the flights suffered delays of a couple of hours on Friday as well due to the law and order situation.
In the meantime, PIA has advised passengers to contact its call centre on 111-786-786 and re-check the arrival and departure status of flights before proceeding to the airport.
It was also learnt that PIA could not ply its staff vans on Thursday night and early Friday in the wake of violence in Karachi, which resulted in the late reporting to duty of operations crew.
Passengers coming from upcountry, though meagre in number, had to face inconvenience as transport was not available at the airport.
“The passengers, who can afford to reach the airport in their personal transport, are availing the outgoing flights. That is why PIA flights ran at almost half capacity on Friday,” said a source.
