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NEW DELHI: At least 67 people were killed and over 50
wounded in a fire that swept through two coaches of the
Delhi-Attari Express, a link train of the Indo-Pak Samjhota
Express, with blasts just five minutes before midnight on
Sunday near the town of Panipat in Haryana.
Most of the dead, still unidentified until Monday evening,
were believed to be Pakistanis. Officials in Islamabad said
there were 553 Pakistanis among the 757 passengers on board
the train. The authorities have decided to wait for the
exact list of the passengers that reached Attari on the
India-Pakistan border in the ill-fated train before
releasing a list of the casualties.
Railway Minister Lalu Prasad said terrorists not happy with
the peace talks may be behind the incident, as similar
blasts had preceded the arrival of President Pervez
Musharraf and others Pakistani officials in India. The fire
broke out in the train that had left Old Delhi railway
station at around midnight Pakistan time at Shiva village in
Panipat district and spread as it took the driver another
two kilometres to stop it near Diwana village, after a
railway gateman reported seeing flames coming out of the
windows of the train.
The formal hypothesis was set for an hour before to 4 hours
after the blast and fire, 11 pm Sunday to 4 am Monday in
India (17:30 to 22:30 UTC). The result is Chisquare
17787.981 on 18000 df, for p=0.868 and Z=-1.118.
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