Fearing violence, huge police deployment at Amritsar accident site

Amritsar, Oct 20: Punjab Police commandos and Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel have been deployed at the site of a train accident, which claimed 61 lives, to manage a huge crowd on Saturday.

A heavy police deployment has been made to keep the situation in order. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh will visit the site later in the day.

The accident took place near Amritsar, when a train ran through the crowd that had assembled across the tracks to watch the Dussehra event.

At least 61 people were killed and 72 injured Friday evening after a crowd of Dussehra revellers that had spilled onto railway tracks while watching burning of Ravana effigy was run over by a train near here, officials said.

The train was coming from Jalandhar when the accident occurred at Joda Phatak near Amritsar, where at least 300 people were watching 'Ravana dahan' at a ground adjacent to the tracks.

On Saturday, Singh ordered an inquiry into the tragic Amritsar train accident.