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| Delhi on high alert after Samjhauta Express explosions | | | New Delhi | Feb 19
Hours after twin blasts aboard the Samjhauta Express between India and Pakistan claimed 66 lives near Panipat at around midnight, an alert has been sounded in the national Capital as its fallout.
The metro rail network here has also been put on high alert. Officials said security personnel were frisking passengers and manually checking their luggage at both railway stations and metro rail station.
"We are not allowing any passenger to enter without proper checking. Their luggage is also being thoroughly checked. On the platform, policemen on civil clothes are also checking people," said Niajuddin, a Sub-Inspector of the Railway Protection Force (RPF).
As the news about the blasts came in, anxious relatives of the passengers gathered at the Old Delhi Railway Station for details.
Syed Mohammad Siddique, who was due to board the train but didn't, was thanking his luck.
"We were about to board the train, but missed it. At around twelve midnight, we got to know about the accident. I have informed my family that I am unharmed," Siddique said.
Railways authorities have put up a bulletin board at the station, which had the names of 13 injured passengers, but little news on the dead.
"We are here since two o'clock in the morning. My cousin was traveling in the train. He had come from Lahore and was going back. We saw him off at 11 p.m. Ever since we have heard about the accident, we are very anxious. So far, we have not got any information about him. The officials here too have not told us anything. We have also not been able to get through the phone to Lahore. What do we do?" said an anxious Sijaudin, a relative of a passenger.
Some of the seriously injured passengers have been shifted to New Delhi hospitals.
The coaches of the Samjhauta Express train, which connects New Delhi to Lahore, erupted in fire near Panipat town, about 80 km (50 miles) north of New Delhi, in the wee hours of Monday, killing at least 66 people and injuring scores of others.
The Pakistani Government said it was in touch with the Indian authorities and was collecting information, confirming that most of the dead were Pakistani.
The Samjhauta Express was carrying around 527 passengers. The dead included three railway policemen.
The victims include both nationals of Pakistan and India, officials said, adding that the explosions took place at midnight after the bi-weekly train left the Old Delhi Railway Station at 10:40 p.m.
According to early reports, IEDs, low-intensity explosives and kerosene bombs were used in the blasts.
Samjhauta rail link was restored in 1976, but was stopped after an attack on the Parliament on December 13, 2001. It started up again in 2004. |
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