7 of 13 passengers killed in Jalgaon train tragedy hailed from Nepal

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January 23, 2025 20:26 IST

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As many as seven of the 13 persons who died in a train accident in Maharashtra's Jalgaon district hailed from Nepal, an official said on Thursday.

IMAGE: Passengers deboard the Pushpak Express after eight passengers of the Pushpak Express were killed after being hit by the Karnataka Express, in Jalgaon, Maharashtra, January 22, 2025. Photograph: ANI Photo

Yuvaraj Patil, district information officer, said 11 of the 13 victims have been identified, and seven of them belonged to Nepal.

Earlier, the authorities had put the number of victims from the neighbouring country at four.

Lachchiram Khataru Pasi was among those seven persons.

His family not only had to bear the grief of his death, but also go through the extremely traumatic process of identifying him from mutilated body parts.

 

The tragedy took place when some passengers of the Mumbai-bound Pushpak Express got off the train after an alarm chain-pulling incident and were run over by the Karnataka Express on the adjacent tracks on Wednesday evening.

Pasi's companions, who survived the tragedy, narrated how they remained huddled in the cramped space between the two trains to save themselves.

Earlier, four Nepalese victims were identified as Kamala Navin Bhandari (43) (who lived in Colaba in Mumbai), Javakala Bhate (60) (who resided at Bhiwandi in Thane), Lachchiram Khataru Pasi (40) and Imtiyaz Ali (11), as per a list provided by authorities.

Pasi's nephew Ramrang Pasi, who lives in Jalgaon, said his uncle hailed from Narainapur in Nepal's Banke district and was in his 50s.

"Some portions of his hands and legs are missing," Ramrang told PTI.

He said his uncle was travelling on the Pushpak Express to Thane from Nepal via Lucknow with five others, all of them daily wagers. Barring Pasi, the others survived, he said.

They identified his uncle from his face and clothes, but the sight was so scary that their minds went blank for a moment, Ramrang said.

They wanted to take his uncle's mortal remains to his native place in Nepal, he added.

Recounting the horror, Shaukat Ali, a worker from Nepal who was travelling with Lachchiram, said, "A fire rumour was spread in the train. We saw smoke inside the bogie. When the train slowed, we hastily stepped down and the train got empty."

As they stepped down, the other train moving in the opposite direction approached within a couple of minutes. Before they could comprehend what was happening, everyone started running helter-skelter to save their lives while there was no place to escape, he said.

"We found small space between the two trains and we laid down there, tightly holding each other, hence we survived," Ali said.

Out of the injured persons, 10 were undergoing treatment -- nine at Pachora civil hospital and one at a medical facility in Jalgaon city. The others who suffered minor injuries were discharged, an official said.

A team of Central Railway on Wednesday night visited the hospitals and distributed a total ex-gratia of Rs 2.70 lakh to nine of the injured passengers, an official said.

The accident took place between Maheji and Pardhade stations near Pachora town around 4.45 pm on Wednesday.

Dilip Kumar, Executive Director, Information and Publicity, Railway Board, denied that any spark or fire inside the coach caused passengers to pull the alarm chain.

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