Dozens dead in Indian train fire
Officials say bomb attack caused death of at least 66 passengers, mostly Pakistanis.
The statement said: “He [Musharraf] said that we will not allow elements which want to sabotage the ongoing peace process [to] succeed in their nefarious designs.”
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“Indian television channels showed rescue workers sifting through the charred remains of the carriages” |
Meanwhile, Pakistan said its foreign minister would go ahead with a trip to India on Tuesday as planned.
Kursheed Mahmoud Kasuri, Pakistan’s foreign minister, is due to meet his Indian counterpart for talks on the tentative peace process between the two countries.
“This kind of incident can’t stop good and positive relations between India and Pakistan,” said Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Pakistan’s railways minister.
He said security would be increased on the Pakistan part of the line.
‘Act of terror’
Lalu Prasad Yadav, India’s rail minister, said the fire was “an act of terrorism like the one in Mumbai,” referring to the blasts in Mumbai last July that killed 186 people.
A spokesman for Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister, said evidence suggested the train fire was an “act of terror”.
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Rail officials said police had found two suitcases filled with flammable material at the scene of the incident near Panipat town, about 100km north of the Indian capital New Delhi.
Mathur said dozens of bodies have been recovered from the burned-out coaches.
“The purpose is to disturb communal harmony, India‘s stability and to disturb the peace process between India and Pakistan.”
However many Indian trains also suffer from chronic overcrowding with passengers often hanging outside the carriages.
An Indian news channel reported that petrol bombs caused the deadly explosion [AFP] |
India’s Times Now news channel said two petrol bombs were believed to have exploded, adding that it took one and a half hours for rescue workers to arrive at the scene at the village of Deewana, five kilometres from Panipat.