Blasts in Lahore-bound Friendship Express claims 65 lives

BY A CORRESPONDENT
February 16, 2007:

A fire sparked by explosions swept through two carriages of Friendship Express, the train bound from India to Pakistan, killing at least 65 people on board.

Passengers who survived said they heard two blasts as the train passed near Panipat, about 80 kilometers 50 miles) north of Delhi.

Over 500 people were believed to have been on the ill-fated train, a majority of them Pakistanis.

The train is part of the ‘Friendship Express’ - a symbol of India-Pakistan peace initiatives – that takes passengers from Delhi to Lahore in Pakistan.

Indian and Pakistani leaders denounced the attack as an act of terrorism aimed at disrupting the peace process between the two countries.

The blasts took place a day before Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri was due in Delhi for talks with Indian leaders.

Kasuri described the explosion was a “horrendous act of terrorism” but said it would not change his plans to visit India from February 20 to 23, 2007.

Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf called for a full investigation by the Indian authorities, but said the attack would not undermine peace efforts between the two nations.

“Such wanton acts of terrorism will only serve to further strengthen our resolve to attain sustainable peace between the two countries,” Musharraf said in a statement.

India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, expressing “anguish and grief” at the loss of lives, vowed that the culprits would be caught.

It is not yet clear who was behind the attack.

Islamabad said most of the dead were Pakistanis. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam demanded that India investigate the incident immediately.

“We expect Indian authorities to punish the perpetrators,” Tasnim Aslam said, stressing that it was India’s responsibility to ensure proper security for the twice-weekly service which runs India-Pakistan train service.

The train India-Pakistan service was restarted in 2004, after a two-year gap, as a part of the peace process between the two countries.

Owing to security precautions, many doors of the train were bolted shut and most windows had bars – all of which led to may passengers getting trapped inside.

Police said they had recovered two suitcases filled with crude, homemade explosives.

The burnt-out carriages were moved away from the scene of the fire to a railway siding, a couple of kilometres away from the site of the explosions, for forensic examination.

The rest of the train continued on its journey to the border station of Attari where passengers would be switched to another train to travel on to Lahore.