HYDERABAD, Feb 2: Fifteen passengers including seven women and a railways guard sustained injuries when seven coaches of 9-up Sialkot-bound Allama Iqbal Express derailed, four of them completely turned on their head, about a kilometre from Hyderabad railway station on Friday.
The apparent cause of the accident seems to be shoddy condition of railway tracks and a broken wooden fish plate used as a joint between two rails.
Superintendent of Pakistan Railways Karachi division Mir Mohammad Khaskheli said that the track would be cleared of wreckage and restored before Saturday morning.
One of the derailed coaches had been removed from the track and an inquiry would definitely be ordered by PR headquarters, he said and added that Pakistan Railways Chairman Shakeel Durrani and general manager were arriving here from Lahore.
However, no senior officials had arrived from Karachi by 6.30 pm, neither any relief train nor any necessary equipment and machinery was brought to remove the overturned coaches and repair down and up country tracks.
Abdul Aziz (railway guard), Tanwir, son of Mohammad Rafiq, 35, Razia wife of Khalid, 35, Batool wife of Zulfikar Ali, 35, Altaf Khan, son of Maqbool, 25, Asia wife of Mohammad Riaz, 30, Niaz Ahmed, son of Raheem Bux, 35, Afan, son of Mohammad Iqbal, 20, Aneesur Rehman, son of S. K. Hussain Sheikh, 52, Afaq, son of Eedo, 55, Rafaqat Hussain, son of Yaqoob, 35, Naila, wife of Rafiq, 20, and Abdul Rehman, son of Maqbool, 3, were injured.
The injured were moved to civil hospital. Aneesur Rehman was discharged a while later while Ahsanullah and Tayyaba were shifted to Bhittai hospital. The rest were undergoing treatment at the civil hospital.
Railway traffic remained closed between upcountry and Karachi on both the up and down tracks blocked by overturned bogies.
The accident took place at 4.40 pm at the railway destination number of 178/1415 while the train was scheduled to arrive at the railway station at 4.50 pm.
Three coaches (9200, 979 and 3861, the dinning car) derailed while four (1137, 9045, 9126 and 9018) turned on their heads after breaking away from their trolleys severely damaging the upcountry track. Coaches (8979, 3861, 1137, 9045, 9126 and 9018) had fallen on the down country track blocking it completely.
Five coaches were moved to Hyderabad railway station while the remaining were to be moved towards Kotri after a locomotive arrived which was nowhere to be seen till the story was filed.
While the exact cause of the accident is yet to be known it appears a broken "wooden" fish plate that serves as a joint for two pieces of rail led to the derailment when coach No 9200 passed over it. "This seems to be the main reason of the incident," said a security official wondering how a wooden fish plate could be used for linking two pieces of rail.
But Altaf Hussain Karmani, Hyderabad railway station superintendent, while speaking to another secret intelligence agency official defended that the wooden fish plate was normally used to neutralise electric current in the tracks.
"I felt two jerks before it derailed. Had it been a subversive act the engine would have been hit," said the locomotive's driver, M. Nisar Ahmed while speaking to a group of journalists.
He said that the train was approaching its destination at 30 to 35 kilometres an hour.
The upcountry trains that will not be able to leave Karachi cantonment station until the track is cleared are; Karakoram, Millat, Karachi Express, Balochistan, Faisalabad Night coach, Fareed expresses, Zikriya Express, Sindh Express, Khyber Mail and Sukkur Express and the down-country trains that are to reach and move for Karachi are; Hazara Express, Shah Rukn-i-Alam, Shalimar and Shah Latif Express.
Railway authorities had announced around 8 pm that they would refund the passengers who had tickets for Allama Iqbal Express but hundreds of passengers present at the railway station were not being guided properly by railway officials.
