MULTAN: As mourning relatives buried some of the 73 people who were killed in the massive train fire near Rahim Yar Khan, officials said on Friday that forensic experts would carry out DNA tests to identify most of the victims.

Ironically, but mercifully without causing any casualties, a similar incident happened on Friday in which one carriage of Sukkur Express caught fire, reportedly because of short-circuit.

The DNA tests are requi­red to identify as many as 52 charred bodies before they can be handed over to relatives for burial, said Jamil Ahmed, the deputy commissioner of Rahim Yar Khan.

The tragedy on Thursday left three coaches of the Rawalpind-boundi Tezgam Express destroyed.

Survivors said it took nearly 20 minutes for the train to stop, amid contradictory reports about whether the train’s brakes and the safety cords were working or not.

Many of the victims were members of Tableeghi Jamaat travelling to Lahore for their annual congregation.

The train was carrying 857 passengers, including 550 members of the preaching group. The fire apparently started in two compartments where Tableeghi Jamaat members were riding in.

In Sindh, where most of the victims were from, authorities handed over several identified bodies to relatives for burial on Friday in the town of Mirpurkhas and elsewhere. Other relatives were seen lining up to give blood samples for DNA tests outside the hospital in Rahim Yar Khan.

The deputy commissioner said the forensic teams hope to complete the identification process within 48 hours. He added that authorities were investigating the incident, including why it took the train so long to stop.

Train driver Sadiue Ahmed Khan insisted the emergency brakes were not malfunctioning and that the train stopped within three minutes of the first signs of fire. “This is the worst tragedy in my life as a driver,” he said.

In Islamabad, Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid told reporters that Pakistan Railways had announced compensation of Rs1.5 million each for those died. Besides, he added, the families of the dead would also be given Rs500,000 each on behalf of the prime minister.

Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said measures would be taken not to allow anyone onboard with cooking stoves or gas cylinders in the future.

“We admit our mistake and I assure you, next time it will not happen,” he said.

In Mirpurkhas, sobbing family members crowded a government building overnight as the first bodies covered in white cloth began arriving by ambulance from the scene of the disaster.

After Fajr prayers, with women watching from nearby rooftops, more than a hundred men attended the first funeral — of a car mechanic named Mohammad Saleem, who was in his late 40s.

It was held at the Bismillah Mosque, from which at least 42 members of Tableeghi Jamaat had left to board the train one day earlier.

According to officials, as some of the passengers cooked breakfast around dawn on Thursday two of their gas cylinders exploded, sending flames racing through three coaches as the train passed near Rahim Yar Khan.

Rescue officials found bodies and some injured passengers along a two-kilometre stretch of track.

Journalists were allowed inside the interior of the coaches early on Friday. The fire appeared to have burned them entirely, with virtually no space visible that was not blackened and charred.

One of them — Wagon No 12 — was carrying mainly people from Mirpurkhas, said the town’s deputy commissioner, Attaullah Shah.

“There was never such a tragic incident to happen to Mirpurkhas,” he said.

Mirpurkhas commissioner Abdul Waheed Sheikh said ten of the bodies had been confirmed as being residents of the town so far.

Twenty-four Mirpurkhas residents were among the injured.

But at least another 45 are still missing, he said.

Mr Shah said the government was arranging to send families of the missing from Mirpurkhas to the hospital in Rahim Yar Khan where the bodies have been taken.

Mirpurkhas was largely shut down on Friday as businesses closed in mourning.

“These were such people that we can not ever forget them,” Mohammad Anwar, the 57-year-old headmaster of a government school, said at the Bismillah Mosque.

He said that among the missing was his nephew, as well as the mosque’s imam. Most of those who left from the mosque had known one another or lived nearby.

Mahmood Iqbal wept outside his home as he said how his two sons were missing, one son-in-law was killed, and one brother-in-law was wounded.

When he looks at his grandsons, he said, he “can’t hold my tears”.

“I am praying to Allah, that they might come back from nowhere. I am waiting for a miracle,” he said.

Sabir Hussain Kaimkhani, a member of the National Assembly’s railways committee, said the accident rate had increased “due to negligence”.

He said that alarm systems and emergency brakes in many trains were missing or broken, and that passenger carriages did not carry fire extinguishers.

Rahmatullah Soomro from Shikarpur adds: A fire broke out in one bogie of Sukkur Express near Lodra Railway Station on Friday due to short circuit. The incident occurred when the train, coming from Karachi, was near 16 Morries Lodra.

The train came to a halt after passengers, who noticed the fire, pulled the emergency chain.

As soon as the train stopped, the area residents rushed to it and started efforts to bring the fire under control on a self-help basis.

No casualty was reported.

The fire brigade of the Shikarpur Municipal Committee also reached the spot and put out the blaze.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2019