Families of missing victims in Tezgam tragedy asked to approach court

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Railways on Thursday announced that 11 passengers are still reported missing in the Tezgam fire tragedy that claimed lives of at least 75 people and injured many others, ARY NEWS reported.

The officials said this during a briefing to the National Assembly’s (NA) Standing Committee on Railways on the Tezgam inferno incident.

During the meeting, the families of the missing victims demanded of the committee to provide them with the death certificates of their loved ones.

“We do not want government aid, just give us the death certificates of our loved ones,” they said adding that they currently face difficulty in preparing documents of the heirs due to absence of death certificates.

The railway authorities said that they could not issue death certificates of the missing people due to legal issues as in past some cases were reported of missing people coming up alive after their death.

During the briefing, they said that it was impossible to conduct DNA of the missing victims.

“We have probed the

mater from all angles,” they said and asked the families to approach civil court for providing them with death certificates, a recommendation endorsed by both the Federal Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and the standing committee members during the meeting.

Speaking on the occasion, the railway minister said that a summary for providing aid to all those hailing from the Sindh province was rejected by the provincial authorities and now they are mulling over to ask the prime minister to announce aid for them.

Read More: Pakistan Railways submits Tezgam inferno inquiry report in IHC 

While divulging details regarding the cause of the incident, Sheikh Rashid said that the forensic report has blamed cylinder blast for the incident.

Meanwhile, speaking on another train tragedy at Rohri, the railway officials blamed the bus driver for the incident that claimed 18 lives and said that those crossing the unmanned railway crossing have to show some responsibility to avoid such accidents.

“Anyone passing from such crossings is solely responsible for any incident, they said.