India Train Fire

NEW DELHI: At least 67 people were killed and over 50 wounded in a fire that swept through two coaches of the Delhi-Attari Express, a link train of the Indo-Pak Samjhota Express, with blasts just five minutes before midnight on Sunday near the town of Panipat in Haryana.

Most of the dead, still unidentified until Monday evening, were believed to be Pakistanis. Officials in Islamabad said there were 553 Pakistanis among the 757 passengers on board the train. The authorities have decided to wait for the exact list of the passengers that reached Attari on the India-Pakistan border in the ill-fated train before releasing a list of the casualties.

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad said terrorists not happy with the peace talks may be behind the incident, as similar blasts had preceded the arrival of President Pervez Musharraf and others Pakistani officials in India. The fire broke out in the train that had left Old Delhi railway station at around midnight Pakistan time at Shiva village in Panipat district and spread as it took the driver another two kilometres to stop it near Diwana village, after a railway gateman reported seeing flames coming out of the windows of the train.

The formal hypothesis was set for an hour before to 4 hours after the blast and fire, 11 pm Sunday to 4 am Monday in India (17:30 to 22:30 UTC). The result is Chisquare 17787.981 on 18000 df, for p=0.868 and Z=-1.118.

India Train Fire


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