The death toll from a deadly Rawalpindi-bound train accident near Aab-e-Gum area of Bolan district in Balochistan has risen to 19.
Officials on Wednesday confirmed the death toll to have risen to 19 and around a dozen people are still in critical condition after Tuesday’s accident.
The Pakistan Railways train carrying around 300 passengers from Quetta to Rawalpindi was derailed on Tuesday. The incident occurred as brakes of the Jaffer Express failed while the train was its way to Rawalpindi, an army officer said earlier.
Officials said that three more people succumbed to their injuries overnight.
“The death toll has risen to 19 now. A total of 96 people are being treated in hospitals and around a dozen are still critical,” Akbar Hussain Durrani, home secretary of Balochistan, told AFP.
Meanwhile an official from Pakistan Railways said experts visited the accident site on Tuesday morning and an inquiry panel is likely to be set up to ascertain the causes.
Train accidents are common in Pakistan, which inherited thousands of miles (kilometres) of track and trains from former colonial power, Britain.
The railways have seen decades of decline due to corruption, mismanagement and lack of investment.
On June 6, the train was returning to Quetta when an explosion derailed four of its carriages near the Jacobabad district jail, leaving eight people injured. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but Baloch separatists demanding greater autonomy have been waging an insurgency for years and the province is also riven by sectarian strife and extremist violence.
Meanwhile, in July, at least 17 people were killed when a special military train fell into a canal after a bridge partially collapsed.
