LAHORE, Nov 16: Officers and employees of the Pakistan Railways’ signal department have appealed to President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to order release of their two colleagues. Assistant Signals Engineer Haider Hasan and SMR Maiwa Khan of the PR Sukkur division have been implicated in the trains collision at Sarhad by the railways police, the officials said in a press release on Wednesday.

The two signals men were illegally kept in inhuman conditions for five days in the Sukkur PR police station.

Later, on the orders of Sukkur DSP, the SHO nominated the two as accused in an FIR and sent them to the central jail.

The Federal Government Inspector of Railways (FGIR) in his report on the Sarhad incident, submitted to the president and the prime minister, had held the Karachi Express driver and fireman directly responsible for the accident. The Sarhad assistant station master, Sukkur controller and the HTXR were held ‘indirect responsible’ while ASE Haider Hasan were placed in the category of ‘other irregularities’ because the glass of window of the Sarhad relay room was found broken.

“A broken glass has no link at all with the accident. All employees of the PR signals department condemn the highhandedness of the railways police,” the release said.

It urged both the president and the prime minister to order withdrawal of the case against the two innocent employees and their immediate release.