67 killed in Samjhauta Express blasts; Peace process to continue

Diwana, Haryana, Feb 19 (UNI) At least 67 Pakistan-bound passengers, mostly Pakistani nationals, were charred to death and 13 injured, some of them seriously, when terrorists detonated powerful IEDs on board the Delhi-Attari Samjhauta Express, near here, well past midnight last night, in a desperate attempt to derail the nascent India-Pakistan peace dialogue.

The blasts were so powerful that two bogies of the 'peace train', that connects India with Pakistan, turned into a complete inferno, a day before Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid M Kasuri was due to arrive in New Delhi for talks with his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee.

Bodies charred beyond recognition, mangled remains of the two coaches, burnt bangles, footwear and other effects of the passengers bore mute testimony to the ghastly attack that occurred 75 minutes after the train had left the national capital.

Security men had their hands full in trying to facilitate scores of political leaders visiting the site and in preventing mediapersons stepping over each other for a 'byte' or two.

At the morgue in a local hospital, bodies lay covered in red and blue plastic bags awaiting identification. Caskets for the dead had started arriving at the Civil Hospital by noon. By 1430 hrs, about 25 bodies had been put in the morgue.

The 67 deceased included 26 men, 14 women and 13 children while the remaining 14 bodies were burnt beyond recognition, officials here said. Only seven of the dead, three of them Pakistanis, have been identified.

This was one of the deadliest terrorist attacks on the Indian Railways system and perhaps the only one in which Indian and Pakistani civilians have together lost their lives.

The identified victims included Shafique Ahmad (Karachi), Tasneem Khan (Hyderabad-Pakistan), Sayyad Ikhtiar Ali (Karachi), Sabina Begum (Delhi), Constable Rajender Pal of RPF (Gurdaspur), ASI (GRP) Kashmir Singh from Ferozepur and Yasmin Akhtar (Srinagar).

The blasts in the train followed by fire occurred around 0100 hrs near here, ten km short of Panipat. The charred bogies were later separated from the train after the fire was extinguished.

After separation of the two bogies, the train, which was going from Delhi to Attari in Pakistan, resumed its journey at about 0300 hrs.

Two unexploded suitcase bombs are also believed to have been found on the train. Inside one, an electronic timer encased in clear plastic was packed next to more than a dozen plastic bottles containing a cocktail of fuel oils and chemicals.

Police said while the explosions were small, they were designed to cause fires on at least four of the train's coaches.

Officials and local villagers near the town of Diwana battled the choking smoke to pull victims out through the doors of the coaches and emergency exit windows.

The leaderships of both India and Pakistan strongly denounced the attack.

President A P J Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were joined by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in strongly condemning the dastardly attack, a grim reminder of the obstacles lying ahead for the leaderships in India and Pakistan in taking their peace process forward.

Twelve of the injured people X X X here pick up first para of DR 76 'Terrorism-Night Lead-Samjhauta Two Diwana'.

UNI