- Train driver attempted to avoid crash but to no avail.
- Five injured passengers transferred to district headquarters hospital.
- Train operations running smoothly in Lahore division: spokesperson.
SHEIKHUPURA: At least 20 passengers were injured on Sunday after trains collided near Qila Sattar Shah Station in Punjab’s Sheikhupura district.
According to sources, the Lahore-bound passenger train coming from Mianwali came on the same track where a freight train was already present, resulting in a crash.
The train driver attempted to avoid the crash but to no avail.
According to the rescue personnel, 20 passengers onboard the train were injured in the accident. Five injured passengers have been transferred to the district headquarters hospital, they added.
The railway officials said that the rescue work has been started at the site of the accident and the investigation into crash has been launched.
Meanwhile, a railways spokesperson said in a statement that train operations are running smoothly in Lahore division following the crash.
The track was cleared at 7:30am after the accident, the spokesperson added.
The spokesperson further said that Mianwali Express was also dispatched and all passengers onboard the train are safe.
It is pertinent to mention that four bogies of a freight train derailed near the same railway station a day earlier.
Former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif expressed sorrow over the incident and demanded action against those responsible for the crash.
Accidents on Pakistan’s decaying rail system are common and successive governments have for years been trying to secure funds to upgrade the rail network under China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
In the past decade, the country has witnessed a number of deadly train accidents, and they seem to have increased in frequency over the past few years.
In August this year, at least 56 were killed and dozens other injured after as many as 10 bogies of Havelian-bound Hazara Express derailed near Sahara Railway Station in Sindh’s Nawabshah district, 275 kilometres away from Karachi, officials said.
Subsequently, then railways minister Khawaja Saad Rafique informed the National Assembly that six railways officials, whose negligence led to the accident of Hazara Express, had been suspended.
Explaining the cause of the accident in the National Assembly, the then minister had said two wheels of a bogie were jammed when the train moved from Karachi.
Besides, the railway track near the accident site was damaged, which led to the accident, Rafique said adding six railways officials of BPS-18 and below were also suspended.
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