Bombs on Train to Pakistan From India Kill At Least 66 People

At least 64 people have been killed in a series of explosions and a fire on a Pakistan-bound train in the northern Indian state of Haryana, officials say.

Passengers reported hearing two blasts as the train passed near Panipat, about 80km (50 miles) north of Delhi.

The train – the Samjhauta Express – was part of a service taking passengers from Delhi to Lahore in Pakistan.

The incident comes just days before Pakistan’s Foreign Minister is due in Delhi for talks with Indian leaders.

“The aim is clear,” Indian Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav told a news conference. “It is an effort to destabilise peace between India, Pakistan. Innocent people have been killed.”

Pakistan said most of the dead were Pakistanis. Describing the incident as an “act of terrorism”, Pakistani foreign ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam demanded India act.

“We expect Indian authorities to punish the perpetrators,” she said, stressing that it was India’s responsibility to ensure proper security for the twice-weekly service which runs from the Indian capital to Lahore in Pakistan.

After a two-year gap, it was reopened in 2004 as part of the peace process between the two countries.

‘Loud explosion’

A series of small blasts took place in two carriages at about midnight (1830 GMT), as the train reached a station in the village of Deewana.

The train came to a standstill and a ball of fire then engulfed the two coaches.

The injured were pulled out of the burning carriages onto the trackside by fellow passengers

“I heard a loud explosion and then it was all smoke,” passenger Tara Chand was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying.

“Looking at the intensity of the smoke, many people must have suffocated to death before being charred.”

Security precautions on the train meant many doors were bolted shut and most windows had bars covering them which may have trapped some passengers inside.

The BBC’s Soutik Biswas saw the two burnt-out carriages and said smoke was still coming out of them hours after the explosions.

The heat of the flames had peeled the blue paint off the coaches, he said, and a lot of oil and burnt cinders littered the tracks.

He went into one of the carriages and saw boxes of food and spices that many of the passengers would have been taking as gifts to friends and relatives in Pakistan.

Shiv Ram, a police railway constable, was one of the first officials on the scene.

“In 30 years of service I haven’t seen anything like this,” he told our correspondent.

“The coaches were totally engulfed in flames. I brought out three charred women – I could only recognise them as women because they were wearing bangles”.

‘Anguish and grief’

The burnt-out carriages have been moved away from the scene of the fire to a railway siding a couple of kilometres away for forensic examination.

Railway officials said five small explosive devices capable of causing a huge fire were defused at the site.

The train carried more than 500 passengers, a mix of Indians and Pakistanis – but most of the victims are believed to have been Pakistanis.

Prime Minister Singh expressed his “anguish and grief” at the deaths.

“The culprits will be caught,” he said.

Source: BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6374377.stm