• Railway traffic halted between Nawabshah and the rest of country
• Over 70 injured as locals rush to help passengers
• Army, police and Rangers personnel conduct rescue work
• 21 bodies handed over to families

HYDERABAD: At least 30 people were killed and 72 others injured in a train accident near Sarhari station in Sanghar district on Sunday when 10 bogies of Havelian-bound Hazara Express derailed.

The tragedy brought railway traffic to a halt between Nawabshah and the rest of the country.

The bodies and the injured were taken to Rural Health Centre (RHC) Sarhari and Peoples Medical University Hospital (PMUH) Nawabshah.

The tragedy occurred at around 1pm outside the outer signal of Sarhari railway station, according to the divisional commercial officer (DCO) Sukkur division of Pakistan Railways (PR).

Though the accident happened at the upcountry track, PR officials said bogies also fell over the down-country track, suspending flow of traffic.

Chaotic scenes were witnessed at the site of the tragedy as relief trains from Kotri and Rohri were dispatched. The first responders were inhabitants of nearby villages, who provided water and relief goods to the injured passengers, including women, trapped in the bogies. They also assisted in retrieving bodies from the wreckage.

Volunteers were wading through a canal that separates the road from the railway line to help, and lifting the injured to get them assistance, Dawn.com reported.

PR officials brought in cranes to remove wreckage from the track. The track was uprooted at a considerable stretch, and some bogies stood broken with pieces of their framework resting on the ground.

Army, police, and Rangers officials rushed to the spot as did General Officer Commanding (GOC) Hyderabad Maj Gen Mohammad Hussain.

There were chaotic scenes at the Nawabshah Trauma Centre as ambulances and private cars ferried the injured for treatment, according to a Dawn.com report.

One man leapt from the back of an ambulance clutching a child, his clothes soaked in blood, while a woman moaned in pain as she was carried in on a stretcher.

“We don’t know what happened, we were just sitting inside,” said one dazed woman.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah arrived from Karachi, visiting PMUH Nawabshah before heading to the site of the tragedy.

The CM told journalists outside the hospital that 30 people were killed in the crash and stated that the injured would be shifted to Karachi if needed. “Assistance can be sought from the army if necessary,” he added.

Commissioner Benazirabad Division Abbas Baloch and DIG Police Benazirabad Range Yunus Chandio supervised the relief and rescue work.

“Till relief trains arrived, police officials remained busy in the rescue work. It is a disaster of a large scale, and the injured have been shifted to hospitals. It requires heavy machinery to complete the job of rescue and removal of wreckage. Railway traffic remains suspended for now as the restoration work is under way,” said DIG Chandio.

Dr Riaz Ahmed Umrani, PMUH’s deputy medical superintendent, confirmed to Dawn that they had received 30 bodies.

“Out of these 30 bodies, 21 have been handed over to the heirs,” he said, adding that the remaining nine bodies had been kept in cold storage. The 72 injured were brought to the RHC Sarhari and PMUH Nawabshah, where 37 were admitted, and the rest were discharged after first aid.

Dr Arshad Jareko of RHC Sarhari told Dawn that initially they received 13 bodies and 53 injured. “We shifted all bodies and injured to PMUH Nawabshah. But we are still on high alert as some bogies are still said to be entangled in the wreckage,” he said.

PR Sukkur division’s DCO Mohsin Siyal, and divisional superintendent Abdul Rehman Lakho didn’t share primary details regarding the number of capsized bogies and those that had derailed. Despite repeated attempts, Sukkur PR division control room, even after six hours of the tragedy, kept stating that the number of capsized and derailed bogies was still being confirmed.

The Hazara Express left Karachi at 7:35am and crossed Karachi division’s last railway station, Tando Adam, 55 minutes late at around 12:30pm.

Following the accident, the Karachi-bound Green Line was halted at Nawabshah railway station, while the Upcountry-bound Pakistan Express and Karakorum were held at Hyderabad railway station and Rehman Baba at Tando Adam railway station. Pak Business left Karachi railway station after a delay of three hours.

According to the PMUH, names of 28 deceased are Ghulam Sugran, wife of Asghar; Mohammad Shareef, son of Shair Mohammad; Abdul Razzak; Sughar Mai, wife of Amer; Shareefan Bibi; Naila, wife of Kashif; Zubaida, wife of Mohammad Asghar; Mansoor Ali; Ameer Chand Rai, son of Ranghoomal; Aneeta, daughter of Natho Mal; Saeeda, Saira, Rahim, Soha, daughter of Allah Bachaya; Nooruddin, son of Deen Mohammad; Sahib Khan, son of Nabidad; Khair Mohammad, son of Jan Mohammad; Shazia Parveen, wife of Abdul Jabbar; Nasreen, wife of Mohammad Saleem; Ayan, son of Ali Khan; Alia, daughter of Ali Khan; Hasina, daughter of Lutfullah; Sain Khatoon, wife of Abdul Ghaffar; Aqulzadi, wife of Allah Bachayo; Rahim Bux, Soonah, Yasir, son of Dinnal Shahdapur; and Ms Rehman, son of Yasir.

The Sindh information department shared the names of 28 injured, including Ms Pathani, Abid Hussain, Mohammad Javed, Asghar Kamboh, Qari Abdul Ghaffar, Naimat Bibi, Hasnain, Rukhsana, Shoban, Abdul Hameed, Rizwan, Imran, Shahzad, Babu, Zakir Hussain, Ghulam Qadir, Athar Ali, Jamaluddin, Ms Soorath, Ms Bahrani, Ms Rizwana, Jetha Ram, Ms Banhi, Ms Fatah Khatoon, Ashfaq Ahmed, Mariam Nawaz, Umar Farooq, Ms Komal, and Aiman 18.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2023