(Repeating, updating toll)

By Staff
|
Google Oneindia News

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

The blasts were so powerful that two bogies of the 'peace train', that connects India with Pakistan, were completely gutted.

The dead were charred beyond recognition. Mangled remains of the victims of the tragedy were strewn all over when UNI correspondents visited the site of the gruesome incident, which not only shocked the people of India and Pakistan but also the rest of the world.

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

Those identified included Shafique Ahmad (Karachi), Tasneem Khan (Hyderabed-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 leaderships of both India and Pakistan strongly condemned the attack, which came a day before Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri was scheduled to arrive in New Delhi to meet his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee.

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.

The blasts in the train followed by fire occurred around 0100 hrs near here, 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, left for its destination at about 0300 hours.

MORE UNI

For Daily Alerts
Get Instant News Updates
Enable
x
Notification Settings X
Time Settings
Done
Clear Notification X
Do you want to clear all the notifications from your inbox?
Settings X
X