There was confusion among family members of the victims of the Bangalore City-Nanded Express train fire accident on Sunday as many of them had not got any information about their loved ones, who were on the train at the time of the incident.
Take for instance the case of Prathap Vinay, engineer with Cement Corporation of India, Tandur. His friend, R.P. Singh, said that as soon as he got to know about the fire accident, he had called up the helpline numbers seeking information about Prathap. It was confirmed that Prathap Vinay was one of the passengers of the B1 coach of Nanded Express in which 26 people were charred to death on Saturday morning. “But Prathap’s name does not figure on the list of the deceased released by the Railway authorities and we don’t know what to make of this,” Mr. Singh said.
However, according to Railway authorities, Prathap had alighted from the train and had given details about himself to the authorities in Anantapur. What added to the confusion among relatives of passengers was that some names that figured on the list of the deceased were later found on the list of survivors.
One such name was that of Umesh, who had left Bangalore for Nanded with seven other relatives. While five of them, including Umesh, escaped through a broken window of a toilet, three of his family members, including his mother Sudha, aunt Leela and uncle Ramanand, were charred to death.
Yet another family that anxiously waited for news about their loved one was that of Dr. Rahi, husband of Dr. Asra, whose name was on the list of those feared dead. Dr. Rahi’s uncle Khwaja Mohinuddin said that Dr. Rahi’s brother-in-law Ibrahim Rahi was also on the train at the time of accident, but no information about him was forthcoming at the helpdesks.
Kamal Deep Kaur is yet another person waiting for information about his wife Balbir Kaur and daughter Amar Preet Kaur, who were on the list of those feared missing.
