Pakistani troops search for victims after train compartments fell into a canal following the partial collapse of a bridge in Wazirabad in the Punjab province yesterday.
Agencies/Lahore/Islamabad
A train carrying hundreds of Pakistan military personnel and their families plunged into a canal yesterday, killing 12 soldiers, when a bridge collapsed in what the army suspects was sabotage, officials said.
The military’s media wing confirmed that four carriages fell into the canal. It said the commander of one unit was among the casualties.
The military is fighting a Taliban insurgency in several regions of the country’s tribal areas bordering Afghanistan in the northwest.
The accident occurred near the eastern town of Wazirabad in the country’s most populous province Punjab as it headed to the garrison town of Kharian.
The crash in Pakistan’s Gujranwala district, in the northeast, happened as an army unit was being transported from southern Sindh province to northern Pakistan.
“There were around 300 passengers on board,” Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafiq said. “It is too early to say about the reason for the mishap. Rescue work is under way.”
More than 50 people were rescued, a military official said.
A rescue mission involving rubber dinghies, helicopters and divers was launched, live TV footage showed.
Rauf Tahir, a spokesman for the railways ministry confirmed the incident, adding that the injured were taken to a military hospital in Gujranwala
Television images of the scene showed several carriages partly submerged in the canal.
The army’s media wing said eight bodies had been pulled out of the water.
Rafiq told Geo TV that six people were missing and the cause of the crash was unknown. But a senior military official said the army suspected sabotage.
“We suspect that this was an act of sabotage... The planks on the rail were tampered with,” the official said, requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
The collapse also raises concerns about the safety of infrastructure. Several television channels reported that the bridge had been marked as “extremely dangerous”.
Pakistan inherited thousands of miles of track and trains from the former colonial power, Britain, but the railways have seen decades of decline due to corruption, mismanagement and under-investment.
In May, seven people including the ambassadors of Norway and the Philippines were killed after a Pakistani military helicopter crashed on its way to the country’s mountainous north where the diplomats were set to inspect tourism projects.
The Indonesian ambassador later succumbed to his injuries after being flown to a hospital in Singapore.
