KARACHI, Aug 21: Several wagons of a goods train derailed here on Sunday, leaving railway officials and police to squabble over the cause of the accident. An explosion was heard before the derailment and evidence found at the spot substantiated it, Divisional Superintendent of Railways, Karachi, Junaid Qureshi said.

However, DIG operations Mushtaq Shah disputed the claim of railway authorities and said: “Police have not found any credible evidence in their initial probe about a bomb explosion.” He said police would initiate a thorough inquiry if they received a directive to do so.

“We are busy right now in clearing the tracks and repairing them because our priority is to restore the train traffic as early as possible. We will definitely hold an inquiry into the incident afterwards,” Mr Qureshi said.

The 13-wagon train, carrying bags of small pieces of imported plastic raw-material, derailed at the Malir railway bridge at around 11.30am. The bridge being the only link between the Malir and Landhi stations, the derailment caused complete suspension of train traffic.

Railway workers removed the damaged bogies soon after the accident and started repairing the tracks. “We will be able to resume the train traffic after midnight or some time early on Monday morning,” the DS Railways said.

Mr Qureshi insisted that it was a blast because mere derailment would not have caused intensive damage to wagons. He said an initial probe into the incident showed that more than half of the train’s wagons had passed the spot before the blast.

The explosion was heard by personnel on the train, he added.

DIG Mushtaq Shah, however, said that police did not find any blackening or any other signs of an explosion or smoke on the spot. The bags of raw plastic were stuffed in the wagons and in the event of a blast, these could have caught fire. But that did not happen. The rail line had been damaged but it did not appear to have been caused by an explosion. “I don’t think it was a bomb explosion,” he added.