New Delhi: Ten Pakistanis and two Indian passengers, including a one-year-old baby, on their way to Lahore were on Monday struggling for survival after blasts ripped through two coaches of the Samjhauta Express near Haryana's Panipat town.
All the 12 suffered serious burn injuries in the devastating explosions that took place minutes before midnight at Diwana village, 82 km from Delhi, killing at least 66 passengers and injuring about 50.
The condition of 11, who were rushed to the specialised burns unit of the Safdarjung Hospital, was described as critical, while one patient, 10-year-old Nadeem from Pakistan, was said to be "very, very critical".
Amongst the victims of the terror attack, that comes just a day before Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri comes to New Delhi for peace talks with his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee, are Rana Shaukat Ali, 46, his wife Rukhsana, 40, and their one-year-old child Aksa.
The couple from Pakistan's Faisalabad area lost five children in the blasts. Only Aksa could survive as the others were sleeping in the upper berths of the compartment and were trapped in the inferno.
Also fighting for life is Abdul Qayoom from Sialkot, who was on his way back home by the Samjhauta Express to Lahore. Qayoom had spent a month in India visiting relatives.
His relative Hashina Begum, 47, had come from Nagaur in Rajasthan to see him off on the train, meant to benefit families torn apart by the partition of the subcontinent.
"After a month of staying happily, we had come to leave him at the station. How did we know something like this would happen," said the stunned 47-year-old, who stayed the night in a hotel in Jama Masjid and rushed to the hospital on hearing news that he had been admitted there.
As the tragedy unfolded in the burns wards of the hospital, uniting both Indians and Pakistanis in their grief, Home Minister Shivraj Patil visited and described the blasts as a "bid to derail the peace process".
"It will not be proper to blame any group or anybody at this point of time. We are investigating the matter. The investigation is still going on," he said.
Expressing sympathy for the families and stressing that the government would extend every possible help to them, he said the explosives used in the blast were of low sound but had a "terrible effect".
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