Train collision in Pak kills at least 50

• In yet another instance of Pakistan’s crumbling railway infrastructure, a train collision early on Monday morning left 50 people dead and 120 people injured. The collision, between Millat Express, plying from Karachi to Sargodha and Sir Syed Express, plying from Rawalpindi to Karachi occurred when the former derailed and jumped tracks near Dharki, a city located 440 km north of Karachi in Ghotki district in Upper Sindh.
• With several of the injured in critical condition and rescuers struggling to reach survivors still trapped in a mangled heap of bogeys, the death toll is likely to rise. According to the driver of the Sir Syed Express, who was rescued two hours after the collision, the train was plying at normal speed when he suddenly spotted the derailed coaches of the Millat Express on the track. According to a local senior police official, several of the dead breathed their last while being pulled out from the wreckage.
• Admitting that the “railway system and other departments have been deprived of the finances that should have been invested in them”, the country’s information minister Fawad Chaudhry said the railways are “witnessing a deterioration”. Between 2013 and 2019, 150 people have been killed in various railway accidents in Pakistan. In fact, Pakistan Railways’ own data shows that in the five years between 2012 and 2017, there were 757 railway accidents — an average of 125 per year.

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