Pakistan: Train Derailment Kills at Least 30

Facts

• At least 30 travelers have been killed and over 100 injured after a train derailed in southern Pakistan on Sunday.¹
• The incident occurred when ten carriages of the Hazara Express train derailed off the city of Nawabshah in the southern Sindh province.²
• The passenger train was reportedly traveling from Karachi to Rawalpindi when it went off the tracks and overturned near the Sarhari railway station.³
• While a high-level probe into the derailment has been ordered, Minister for Railways Khwaja Saad Rafiq said the crash could have been due to a mechanical fault or even sabotage.⁴
• Though the cause of the accident is unclear, rescue operations were completed by Sunday evening. Local authorities confirmed that women and children were among the dead and injured.⁵
• Sunday's incident comes after two trains collided near Daharki in Sindh in 2021, killing at least 65 people and injuring about 150 others.⁶

Sources: ¹Al Jazeera, ²CNN, ³New York Times, ⁴New York Post, ⁵Associated Press, and ⁶VOA.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by DAWN. Sunday's accident highlights Pakistan's worrying railway safety record and failing rail infrastructure. Despite several accidents, successive governments have brought about little improvement in the condition of railway tracks since the country gained independence in 1947. Countless lives will be lost if colonial-era communications and signal systems remain antiquated, and safety standards and railway tracks aren't upgraded.
• Narrative B, as provided by The Business Standard. Despite many problems, Pakistan's railway system is moving towards modernization as part of China's Belt and Road Initiative. While the cause of Sunday's crash has not yet been ascertained, it will be determined after a thorough investigation, as relevant officials have been directed to establish all possibilities. Pakistani authorities are moving quickly in their search and rescue which, for now, is rightly prioritizing victims and their families.