As many as seven of the 13 persons who died in a train accident in Maharashtra's Jalgaon district hailed from Nepal, an official said on Thursday. Yuvaraj Patil, district information officer, said 11 of the 13 victims have been identified, and seven of them belonged to Nepal.
The Railway Protection Force and Government Railway Police have jointly initiated an inquiry into the train tragedy. Thirteen passengers of the Mumbai-bound Pushpak Express, who got off the train after an alarm chain-pulling incident, were run over by the Karnataka Express heading from Bengaluru to Delhi on the adjacent tracks in Maharashtra's Jalgaon district on Wednesday evening.
“Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP) initiated an inquiry after the tragedy on Wednesday to find out what caused passengers to pull the alarm chain and alight the Pushpak Express,” Swapnil Dhanraj Nila, Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO), Central Railway, said.
Asked if the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) will also investigate the incident, Nila said, “The order for a CRS enquiry hasn't been issued yet.”
Initial reports suggested that a rumour of fire caused panic among Pushpak Express' passengers who alighted and waited at the adjacent track for a few minutes when the speeding Karnataka Express mowed many of them down. The Railway Ministry clarified that no spark or smoke emanated from any part of the coach. “We are trying to find out who spread the rumour and what caused the passengers to come out of the train,” a railway official said.
Lachchiram Khataru Pasi from Nepal was among those seven persons. His family not only had to bear the grief of his death, but also go through the extremely traumatic process of identifying him from mutilated body parts.
The tragedy took place when some passengers of the Mumbai-bound Pushpak Express got off the train after an alarm chain-pulling incident and were run over by the Karnataka Express on the adjacent tracks on Wednesday evening.
Pasi's companions, who survived the tragedy, narrated how they remained huddled in the cramped space between the two trains to save themselves.
Recounting the horror, Shaukat Ali, a worker from Nepal who was travelling with Lachchiram, said, "A fire rumour was spread in the train. We saw smoke inside the bogie. When the train slowed, we hastily stepped down and the train got empty."
As they stepped down, the other train moving in the opposite direction approached within a couple of minutes. Before they could comprehend what was happening, everyone started running helter-skelter to save their lives while there was no place to escape, he said.
Out of the injured persons, 10 were undergoing treatment -- nine at Pachora civil hospital and one at a medical facility in Jalgaon city. The others who suffered minor injuries were discharged, an official said.
Dilip Kumar, Executive Director, Information and Publicity, Railway Board, denied that any spark or fire inside the coach caused passengers to pull the alarm chain.