SUKKUR, July 15: Rail workers will take another 6 to 10 hours to clear the up and down tracks at the site of Wednesday’s triple train accident near Ghotki, a senior railways official said on Friday.
For the time being the tracks have been temporarily cleared, according to the DCO Railways in Sukkur Agha Waseem, but it will take up to a week to complete the repair work and restore both the platform and tracks.
The DCO Railways said that about 70 per cent of the wreckage had been removed from the site and the remaining would be cleared within the next 24 hours.
Some 63 victims of the accident were laid to rest Friday in three mass graves in Momin Shah graveyard in Ghotki. In the meantime another nine bodies were handed over to the relatives of the deceased after identification.
Earlier the funeral prayers for these 72 victims were offered at a hospital in Ghotki. Paramilitary rangers personnel and a large number of people from Ghotki, Mirpur Mathelo, Daharki, Pano Aqil, Rohri, Sukkur and other areas attended the funeral prayers. Surprisingly, not a single Railways official, district administration officer or elected representative was present for the Namaz-i-Janaza.
Out of six missing Railway officials, the bodies of only two have been recovered — the driver of Quetta Express Mohammad Din and the fireman Mohammad Yousuf. Both the officials were buried in a graveyard at the Locoshed near Rohri on Friday evening.
Mr Yousuf’s body was badly mutilated and only the lower part of his body was found. His relatives identified him from his trousers, handkerchief and fountain pen.
On Wednesday and Thursday, a majority of Railways workers including the DTO and DS Sukkur were busy extending protocol to their high-ups and none of them showed much interest in helping out relatives of the missing Railways officials, or providing them proper information.
Pakistan Railways’ health department also did not provide enough assistance to the victims.
However, it was the doctors of the army, civil society groups and inhabitants of Sarhad, Ghotki, Mirpur Mathelo and Daharki town who provided the bulk of relief and medical aid to the crash victims.
Federal Government Inspector Railways Saleem-ur-Rehman Akhund will start an inquiry into the triple train disaster on July 18.
POINTS AND SIGNALS: According to an initial inquiry report, the assistant engineer signals Sukkur, Altaf Chandio, has been suspended.
Informed sources said that the station master at Sarhad railway station Maqbool Ahmed had informed the authorities five days before the accident that the signal and points system at Sarhad railway station was not working properly and needed immediate repair.
But the railway authorities claimed that he had only complained about the fault in the points and not in the signal system, sources said. The fault in the points system was removed, they added.
Railway sources said that the station master in question did not send a reminder about the fault in the points or signals. They said that both the station master and assistant station master had been arrested by the police.