INDIA/PAKISTAN: One person is detained following the death of 66 people in explosions on a train bound from India to Pakistan

Record ID: 356695

  • Title: INDIA/PAKISTAN: One person is detained following the death of 66 people in explosions on a train bound from India to Pakistan
  • Date: 20th February 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) PAKISTANI PRIME MINISTER SHAUKAT AZIZ SAYING: "We are very saddened that over sixty Pakistanis have lost their lives and an equal number are injured. Pakistan condemns this incident and we hope that the investigations which will be conducted by the Indian authorities is shared with us."
  • Embargoed: 7th March 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVAD5QVRYBN3FHJ3NBZC2NBUMIIL
  • Story Text: One person is detained in connection with blasts which exploded aboard a train bound from India to Pakistan and sparked a fire that killed at least 66 passengers.
    One person has been detained in connection with blasts aboard a train bound from India to Pakistan which sparked a fire that killed at least 66 passengers on Monday (February 19).
    "One person has been detained and he is being interrogated," Lalu Prasad Yadav, India's Railway Minister, told reporters after meeting the injured at a hospital in New Delhi.
    There was no finger-pointing by India and Pakistan as there has been so often in the past after violent attacks.
    "It is a clear-cut attempt to target the friendship and harmony between the two countries. We'll fight back such elements," Yadav added.
    The prime ministers of the two countries called each other and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said the attack would not be allowed to undermine the two countries' peace efforts.
    "We will not allow elements which want to sabotage the ongoing peace process to succeed in their nefarious designs," Musharraf said in a statement.
    Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told reporters in Islamabad Pakistan wishes to be kept fully informed during the investigation into the incident.
    "We are very saddened that over sixty Pakistanis have lost their lives and an equal number are injured. Pakistan condemns this incident and we hope that the investigations which will be conducted by the Indian authorities is shared with us," Aziz said.
    Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri, due in New Delhi for talks with Indian leaders to push forward the slow-moving peace process, said his trip would go ahead.
    Most of the victims were Pakistanis, but some Indians and three railway policemen died in the attack, officials said.
    Two coaches of the Samjhauta Express train, which connects New Delhi to the northern Pakistani city of Lahore, erupted in flames near Deewana town, about 80 km (50 miles) north of the Indian capital, around midnight (1830 GMT) on Sunday.
    Carriages were blackened and gutted, paint peeled off with the heat. Burnt clothes, shoes and bags littered the floor.
    Like all Indian trains, most of the windows in the lower class compartments were barred with metal rods, meaning many people were trapped inside the train.
    At the morgue in the nearby town of Panipat, bodies were laid out on the floor in blue bags between huge slabs of melting ice. Officials said 30 of the bodies were charred beyond recognition and might never be identified.
    Around half a dozen of the corpses were of children.
    At least 13 people were also injured, with several arriving at a New Delhi hospital, their faces burnt and bandaged.
    Two unexploded suitcase bombs were also found on the train.
    The rest of the train, which had been carrying around 600 passengers, continued to the border town of Atari. Passengers were due to get off there and transfer to a Pakistani train.
    "There was a sudden explosion, followed by a lot of smoke," said Shah Mohammad, a Pakistani passenger. "We started choking and the doors got jammed. I had with me my three children, wife and old parents. We shouted out, asking that the train be stopped immediately. It stopped only after five minutes. We all then jumped out, near Wahidpur. It was very dark, there was no light."
    The rail link was severed after an attack on New Delhi's parliament in late 2001 but it started up again amid great ceremony in January 2004.
    While a hardline Hindu group had threatened to disrupt the service in 2000, suspicion for this attack is also likely to fall on Muslim extremists opposed to the peace process between the neighbours.
    Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed "anguish and grief" at the loss of life and vowed to catch the culprits, according to a statement.
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