Train Derails in Pakistan, Killing at Least 30

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—At least 30 people were killed Sunday when a train careened off its tracks in southern Pakistan, officials said.

There were around 1,000 passengers on the train, which was traveling from the southern port city of Karachi to the north of Pakistan, along the main track which runs up the middle of the country. More than 100 people were injured, in addition to the fatalities, officials said.

Rescuers pulled people out of overturned and mangled carriages, which had derailed near the town of Nawabshah, in the country’s Sindh province, in the afternoon. Cranes were brought to the site to lift the carriages, and the army was also called in to help. The authorities hoped to clear the tracks of debris by the end of the night.  

Survivors climbed out of the windows of carriages, with some searching desperately for their children, local television pictures showed. Passengers said they had heard screams as the carriages came off the tracks. Army personnel carried the injured off on stretchers. Officials are appealing for blood donations.

“We have made great efforts to make rail travel safe,” said Khawaja Saad Rafique, the railways minister, noting that the track was in good condition. “We will have to investigate to get to the root cause of this incident.”

The driver said he wasn’t speeding, the minister said.

Maj. Gen. Muhammad Hussain, visiting the site of the derailment, said that a preliminary investigation didn’t find evidence of terrorism. The bodies of the dead had been recovered from the wreckage, he said, and authorities were trying to identify the dead. 

Pakistan has suffered a series of train accidents in recent years. Its creaking rail infrastructure, dating back to colonial times, needs billions of dollars’ worth of investment. Islamabad has been negotiating a deal with China for about eight years to carry out an upgrade of the rail system, which would cost at least $6 billion, but financing for the project hasn’t been worked out. Experts say railroad revenues are insufficient to service the loan that China would provide to finance the project. 

The central government is already struggling to meet its other debt obligations, including from other Chinese projects, which led to a bailout from the International Monetary Fund earlier this year. Islamabad doesn’t want to take on additional borrowing for railroad modernization.

The project was announced in 2015, as part of Beijing’s extensive construction of infrastructure in Pakistan under its global Belt and Road Initiative, which has seen China spend some $25 billion in Pakistan so far. If it proceeds, the rail upgrade would be the single biggest part of that investment program.

Write to Saeed Shah at [email protected]