NAROWAL: Allama Iqbal Express passenger train coming from Wazirabad to Sialkot collided with a police patrol van at Sahuwala Canal bridge crossing on early Wednesday.

Luckily, no casualty was reported in the accident, as the policemen saved their lives by timely jumping out of the van.

The Allama Iqbal Express (passenger train) runs between Sialkot and Karachi via Narowal and Lahore.

The police sources say that the express train is sent to Wazirabad daily for service and maintenance.

Cops save their lives by jumping out of the vehicle

They say that on Wednesday, the train was coming from Wazirabad after service, when the Sahuwala police patrol van, carrying duty officer Sub-Inspector Imran Ali and three constables, broke down on railway tracks at Sahuwala Canal bridge at 6am.

Meanwhile, they say, the policemen in the van saw the express train arriving and jumped out of the van.

The train hit the van and kept it pushing on the tracks on the canal bridge, they added.

According to two eyewitnesses, Afzal and Ansar Mahmood, the van driver tried to remove the police van, but to no avail.

According to police sources, all the policemen remained safe in the accident, while the van was severely damaged.

On receiving the information about the accident, teams from Sahuwala patrol police post and nearby police stations immediately reached the spot.

After the accident, the railway engineering team that reached the spot, with the help of locals, removed the damaged police van from the tracks and stored the traffic after a three-hour-long efforts.

Locals, including Ashir Hussain and Manan Khan, say that another accident had also taken place at the spot on August 16, 2025, when the Sialkot Express coming from Wazirabad had hit a car on the Sahuwala Canal bridge. As a result, the car driver was killed and another man was seriously injured.

They demand that a gate should be installed on the railway crossing near the Sahuwala Canal bridge to check such accidents. Malik Attaullah, Deputy Superintendent of the highway patrol police, was not available for his comment on the incident.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2025