LAHORE: The Pakistan Railways (PR) on Thursday suspended 13 more employees for negligence in Tezgam fire and said the alarm chain system of the Rawalpindi-bound train was in working order.

Six senior officials were suspended a couple of days ago.

“According to the data recorded by the equipment installed in the engine, passengers pulled the chain at 6:18am. On receiving the alert, the driver applied emergency brakes. The passenger pulled the alarm chain again at 6:21am, by the time the train was almost dead slow,” PR Chief Executive Officer Aijaz Ahmad Buriro told journalists here on Thursday.

According to him, the report of the data recording equipment was vital to know engine’s running, speed, applying of brakes (normal and emergency), any technical problem, stoppages, timings of operational actions etc.

“It also helps the authorities in verifying claims of the driver, fireman/assistant driver, train examiner, permanent weigh inspector and relevant technical staff.”

The CEO said the PR central control room had received information about fire at 6:25am.

Rejecting short-circuit claims by witnesses, Mr Buriro said the fire was caused by stoves and gas cylinders. He said 57 passengers had died in coach No 4 where cooking was going on while one each expired in coaches 3 and 5.

He said the short circuit did not cause such a massive fire. Had it happened, our circuit breakers and the power van would have tripped.

He said there were three major fire incidents in trains in the history of Pakistan Railways. First happened in 1992 (Eid special train) that left 8 to 10 passengers dead. Second one took place in Tezgam in 2009 due to a short circuit but there was no causality. And the last one happened, also in Tezgam, on Oct 31.

Meanwhile, the PR (Karachi division) suspended from service 13 railway police personnel for showing negligence that led to the eruption of fire in Tezgam.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2019