Indian train victims' cries haunt survivors
WAGAH, Pakistan (Reuters) - The cries for help from victims of the bombs and inferno that tore through an Indian train haunted Pakistani survivors arriving home on Monday.
"Children were crying for help. I wanted to help them but the fire was so big," a woman wearing an orange shawl told Pakistani television after crossing the border into Pakistan at Wagah.
"We didn't hear any blast. There was only flames," she said.
At least 66 people were killed on the train bound from the Indian capital to Pakistan, most of them Pakistanis. Officials said the attack appeared to be an attempt to sabotage a tentative peace process between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
Two bombs exploded on the train at around midnight on Sunday and two carriages were quickly engulfed in fire.
Two unexploded suitcase bombs were found on the train. Inside one, an electronic timer was packed next to more than a dozen plastic bottles containing a cocktail of fuel oils and chemicals.
One woman with burns on her face wept as she described what happened.
"We were sleeping after having dinner," she said. "When we woke up there was fire. Everyone was crying 'please save us, please save us, please stop the train!'."
She and many others in her carriage jumped out of the train to save themselves.
The faces of many of the passengers arriving back in Pakistan were lined with fear. "God forgive us," many uttered.
WAVE OF PANIC
Eighty-year-old Noor Mohammad spoke of panic sweeping through the train of death.
"It was a huge fire. People were shouting for help. That caused panic in other carriages and people in those carriages also started shouting," he said.
Shah Mohammad, from the city of Karachi, was traveling in one of the two carriages that caught fire.
"First there was an explosion. Then smoke filled the carriage and then there was fire. the lights also went off," said Mohammad, who was traveling with his wife, father and four children.
"I grabbed my youngest son and pulled on the door of the carriage. It opened and I jumped out. My other relatives also jumped and all of them are safe."
"An Indian man was sitting opposite our seat. He was badly injured and his four children were burned to death. I could not save them," Mohammad said.
He said he had lost his passport and money. An Indian gave him some shoes but his children were barefoot.
The attack came just before Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri was due in New Delhi for talks with Indian leaders to push forward a slow-moving peace process.
An increase in the number of transport links between the old rivals has been one of the main achievements of that process.
