Pakistan Lowers Train Crash Toll to 40

By SADAQAT JAN

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Authorities lowered the death toll Thursday from a train derailment in southern Pakistan as the damaged rail lines were repaired, allowing services to be restored at the height of the holiday travel season.

Fourteen of the 16 cars on the Karachi Express train jumped the tracks before dawn Wednesday as the crowded passenger train headed from Karachi, capital of southern Sindh province, to the eastern city of Lahore, mainly carrying passengers heading home for the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha.

Officials initially reported at least 58 dead from the crash near Mehrabpur, a town about 250 miles north of Karachi. But Junaid Qureshi, director of operations for state-run Pakistan Railways, revised the casualty figures to 40 dead and 269 injured, mostly in two cars that were turned into mangled metal and debris.

"The position now is that there are 40 dead," Qureshi said, adding the early figure was exaggerated. "I do not know where they got it from."

Thirty-nine bodies have been handed over to relatives, while one unidentified body remained unclaimed in a Karachi morgue, he said.

But confusion remained over how many people died. Officials at Edhi Foundation, Pakistan’s largest privately run emergency service which helped in the rescue and relief operation, reported Thursday its workers had picked up 45 bodies from the scene.

Mohammed Shafi Toor, head of the state-run hospital in Mehrabpur, said 46 bodies were taken to three hospitals. He put the injured figure at 290.

It was not immediately possible to reconcile the differing death counts.

Authorities have started an inquiry into the crash. Qureshi would not speculate on whether sabotage may have been responsible, saying only the probe will examine all angles, including the possibility of a fault in the tracks or the engine.

Train accidents are common in Pakistan, which has an antiquated rail network dating back to the British colonial-era.

A speeding train struck a crowded bus at a railway crossing near Lahore in October, killing 12 people and injuring about 50. About 130 people died in July 2005 when three trains collided in southern Pakistan.