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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| At least 120 killed in Pakistan train crash |
| 2005-07-13 |
| At least 120 people were killed and hundreds injured in Pakistan on Wednesday when a passenger train crashed into another at a station and a third train then plowed into the wreckage, police said. "So far, we have taken out at least 120 bodies," police official Shabbir Billo told Reuters from near the scene of the crash near Ghotki, a small town in southern Sindh province. An express train coming from the eastern city of Lahore rammed into the rear of a train stopped at a station for repairs, the private Geo television station said. A third train then plowed into the derailed carriages, police said. Nineteen carriages were derailed in all, police said. Police said it was too early to determine the cause of the crash but a technical fault was suspected. A Reuters photographer said he saw about 50 blood-soaked bodies lying near the scene of the crash. Rescue workers and police were trying to recover bodies from the wreckage. Many injured people were being given treatment at the site while others were searching for missing friends or relatives, he said. Various opponents of the government, including nationalist tribesmen, have attacked railway lines in southern Pakistan but a senior police official said he believed a technical fault was to blame. "In my view it was a technical mistake," Ghotki police chief Agha Mohammad Tahir told the private Geo television station. |
| Posted by:ed |
| #5 heh heh both of yas I'm thinking more of "ship of fools" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-07-13 20:29 |
| #4 I think Arafat was partial to Shakedown Street. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2005-07-13 19:25 |
| #3 Ah hell, why not, it's Wednesday. Harmonize with me Frank! Trouble ahead ...oh lady in red take my advice, you'd be better off dead switchman sleeping, train a hundred and two is on the wrong track and headed for you, Driving that train, high on cocaine Casey Jones you better watch your speed, trouble ahead, trouble behind and you know that notion just crossed my mind. Trouble with you is the trouble with me got two good eyes but ya still don't see, comin' round the bend, you know it's the end though the fireman screams and the engine just gleems, |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-07-13 19:11 |
| #2 I've read that Pakistan doesn't even have a rail line to Islamabad. There has been zero investment since the end of the Raj. While India has approximately doubled the amount of track since independence, Indian Railways is grossly mismanaged. It is a huge employment bank leaving almost nothing from budget for safety improvements. The current Indian railways minister is an idiot called Lalloo who, given his track record as chief minister in running Bihar state into the ground, will destroy the Indian railways if left to his own devices. He faces several criminal charges. He attended a cabinet meeting where he opined that the problem with Bihar was not his idiot wife, the current chief minister (iliterate woman with nine children) but the lack of ability to print money. He asked his fellow cabinet ministers for this authority. If only he could print money, all would be well. The Indian PM and finance minsters (both Harvard educated economists) refused to answer, moving on to other matters. The Indian PM Singh then wrote a memo to all ministers stating that their presence was no longer necessary at cabinet meetings. They could instead send their civil service deputies. |
| Posted by: john 2005-07-13 12:43 |
| #1 Two comments: - as they say: Inshallah! - I've seen how they operate trains in India: men stand along the tracks every few miles, next to small cement cabin, and hold a tiny red or green flag up to signal the train. In case of problems they have to make a phone call elsewhere or send a boy running I suppose. Pakistan's railroads are probably in a worst state of mis-management. |
| Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) 2005-07-13 10:42 |