Liaquatpur tragedy: Scanners at Cantt Station out of order for last six months

Defective luggage scanners at railway stations of Karachi & Hyderabad lured some of ill-fated passengers to take prohibited items (gas cylinders) with them, which may have caused Liaquatpur human tragedy.

Business Recorder while investigating the matter came to know that hi-tech scanners, which were installed at Cantt Station some years ago, are out of order for last six months.

Instead of carry out maintenance work of the scanning machines on war-footing basis, due to potential threats of terrorism and smuggling, railway authorities had started luggage clearance through manual search, putting the lives of commuters at risk.

In the light of federal minister's claim that Liaquatpur train incident occurred due to gas cylinder blast, this scribe approached top railway officials, who on a condition of anonymity, admitted that scanners at Karachi and Hyderabad were malfunctioning for months and staff at these stations were clearing luggage of commuters through decade-old manual hand-checking.

On one hand, Sheikh Rashid made an attempt to put all responsibility of Liaquatpur incident on passengers by claiming that some of them carried gas cylinder and it was exploded when it was ignited for cooking.

On the other hand, this statement by federal railway minister exposed the railway security officials, due to their negligence, passengers were allowed to travel with gas cylinders from Hyderabad station.

However, gas cylinders or any combustible material is declared prohibited as per Railway manuals.

Sources said the multi-million scanners, installed at the heritage building of cantt station have been dysfunctional for the last six months, depicting sheer negligence of PR Karachi Division to ensure swift and effective luggage checking for the safety of its passengers.

A senior PR official currently posted in Lahore Headquarters said that these two scanners one for upper class and other for the lower class train passengers had been purchased by the Inspector General (IG) railways, and were being operated under the supervision of Railways police.

Meanwhile Superintendent of Police (SP) Railways when contacted to have his version on the issue confirmed that both luggage checking machines have developed faults due to high temperature in the rooms where they have been placed in. He said he has already requested the railways divisional management to install air condition at the scanners room. Cantt station handles dozens of trains every day. Sources said some 15,000 to 20,000 passengers with their 300 to 350 tonnes of luggage, who pass through or originate from the station, can't be checked manually.

Another official said the scanners of Hyderabad station developed faults, due to which the checking staff could not detect gas cylinder in the luggage of passengers.

Jamshaid Aslam, Deputy Divisional Superintendent Karachi Division said a detailed inquiry of the Liaquatpur train incident will be carried out by federal inspector of Railways.

A helpline has been established at Divisional Superintendent office at the City Station. Aslam said he is personally supervising helpline to entertain queries pertaining to the incident. Sharing the booking information, he said the two destroyed coaches of Rawalpindi-bound Taizgam Express were completely booked by Ameer Hussain from Karachi while passengers from Hyderabad, Nawabshah, Mehrabpur and Rohri started their journey in these coaches.

Regarding the 54 Passenger of AC business class, he said complete details are available with Railways. He said Karachi Division dismisses the news circulating on section of media of being not in possession of relevant record of passengers travelling in Tezgam Express.