India’s railway officials and local community leaders yesterday traded blame over an accident in which a train ran over scores of people gathered on the tracks for a festival in Amritsar, killing at least 59.
A large crowd had formed near the tracks on the city’s fringe for the burning of effigies as part of a major Hindu festival on Friday, when the train sped through the gathering in darkness, officials and witnesses said.
Grieving relatives and residents, some of whom were still scouring the bloodied fields for belongings of their loved ones, said there was no warning from the train as it rolled down the tracks just as firecrackers exploded in the sky in the annual Dusshera festival.
Photo: EPA
“I’ve been seeing this event every Dusshera from here and this has never happened before, the railways should have stopped or slowed down the train,” said Deep Kumari, who watched the festival from the terrace of her house. “Everyone here knows this effigy burning happens here and there is a big crowd.”
India’s state railways, largely built during British colonial rule, have long faced criticism for their safety record.
A political focus on keeping fares low for the 23 million passengers who use the network daily has resulted in decades of underinvestment in rail safety infrastructure, critics say.
Parliament data in July showed that 49,790 people were killed by trains on the tracks in India between 2015 to last year.
Friday’s accident was the worst in years, but Indian Minister of State, Railways Manoj Sinha said they could not be held responsible for people gathered on tracks.
“Railways cannot be blamed, railways were not informed about the ceremony. Why was it organized there? There was no notice given to the railways,” he told reporters as he visited the site early yesterday, surrounded by officials and police.
Police said they were still looking to ascertain the number of dead as some bodies were mangled beyond recognition.
Video footage on television stations and social media showed giant effigies burning in the distance and crackers going off while the train runs through in the foreground. Many of the victims were shooting videos on their mobile phones or taking selfies.
Witnesses also said that the ceremony was delayed by a few hours because the chief guest was running late, which meant the event ultimately coincided with the train’s scheduled arrival.
Anger turned on Navjyot Kaur Sidhu, a former Punjab State legislator who came late for the burning of the effigies and then left just before the accident occurred.
Bikram Singh Majitha, a leader of the regional Akali Dal party, said the effigy burning usually happens at sunset, not later.
“You can see from some of the videos that people shot that as soon as the effigy was lit, you can the train coming from the other side. It was horrific. The organizers must answer why the delay,” he said.
However, Kaur that said effigies were burnt at six places in Amritsar and most of them were in fields near the tracks.
“The [railway authorities] should have at least issued directions to slow down the speed of the train. Such a big mistake,” Kaur said on television.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese