General Manager of the Pakistan Railways Asad Saeed said
Wednesday that broken track joint might have caused the train
derailment in southern Pakistan.
State-run PTV quoted Saeed as saying, "A welded track joint
broke. Tracks shrink in winter. There are many forces on the track
and sometimes this joint breaks."
Giving probable reasons behind the tragic accident, Saeed ruled
out possibility of terrorism.
The railway tracks are old and the government is in the process
of replacing them, he added.
Saeed said that an investigation had been ordered to ascertain
cause of the accident.
He said that search and rescue activities were continuing and
aid workers were struggling to cope with rising number of
casualties.
He assured that the accident did not affect the arrival and
departure of other trains.
Meanwhile, at least 58 were killed and more than 120 others were
injured in the train accident in Pakistan's southern Sindh province
early Wednesday morning.
Traveling from southern port city of Karachi to eastern border
city of Lahore, the Karachi Express, with some 900 passengers
heading home for the Islamic holiday of Eid ul-Adha, derailed near
Mehrabpur, some 400 north of Karachi, at about 2:25 a.m. (2125 GMT
Tuesday), according to local press reports.
Railways officials confirmed that 15 out of the 17 carriages of
the train derailed and two of them were destroyed completely in the
accident.
President Pervez Musharraf Wednesday directed immediate inquiry
into the causes leading to the derailment of the Karachi Express
and the heavy loss of life.
Musharraf directed the Pakistan Railways to investigate into the
matter and fix responsibility so that the culprits may be punished
and measures taken to ensure such incidents do not recur.
(Xinhua News Agency December 20, 2007)
