Police questioning Pak passenger, toll 67

DEEWANA (HARYANA): With the recovery of one more body from one of the charred bogies of the Delhi-Attari special train, the number of people killed in the explosion onboard the train has gone up to 66, a senior police official said.

“So far 66 bodies have been recovered from the train and 13 of those injured have been shifted from Panipat Civil hospital to Safdarjung hospital in Delhi," Haryana's Director General of Police, Ranjiv Dalal, said. One more body had been taken out of a bogie, taking the toll to 66, he said.

Two bogies of the train had been completely gutted in the incident.

Earlier, the State's Chief Secretary Prem Prashant had said there appears to be “every chance of sabotage and our forensic experts are already on the job”.

“We defused two IEDs which were found behind the two bogies that got burnt,” Prashant said.

The identification of the dead, who included women, was difficult as the bodies were charred beyond recognition in the fire that followed the explosions, Superintendent of Police (Panipat) Mohinder Singh Sheoran said.

A senior police officer said a Pakistani national Shamsuddin, who was travelling in the train, has given information to the police regarding some explosives being planted in it. The police are talking to the passenger.

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav a statutory probe had been ordered and compensation as per the railway rules would be paid to the next of the kin of the victims. Prasad also identified the Railway Protection Force personnel killed as Swarna Singh, Kashmira Singh and Rajender Singh.

After detaching the two burnt bogies, the remaining compartments of the train carrying around 500 passengers left for Attari after a thorough check by security personnel.

Meanwhile, security on board various trains and at railway stations in Punjab have been put on alert following the incident, ADGP Railway Chandershekhar said in Ludhiana.

Forensic experts from Madhuban near Karnal had been summoned.