66 killed in a bombing in India

DEWANA, India – Two bombs exploded on a train headed from India to Pakistan, sparking a fire that swept through two coaches and killed 66 people in an attack that officials said Monday was aimed at undermining the peace process between the rivals.\nWitnesses described a scene of horror as panic-stricken passengers were trapped in one of the burning cars even after the train stopped, just before midnight Sunday in a rural area in northern India. The screams of the victims filled the night, then were drowned out by the roar of the flames.\nMost of the dead were Pakistani, said Railway Minister Laloo Prasad. Dozens were injured.\nAuthorities searching undamaged train cars said they found two suitcases packed with crude, unexploded bombs and bottles of gasoline, apparently similar to the devices that had exploded.\n“This is an act of sabotage,” Prasad said. “This is an attempt to derail the improving relationship between India and Pakistan.”\nA Home Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, said no suspects had been ruled out – from Kashmiri separatists to Hindu extremists.\nThe attack came two days before Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri was to arrive Tuesday in New Delhi for talks, and Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said both countries should move forward with peace efforts.\n“We will not allow elements which want to sabotage the ongoing peace process and succeed in their nefarious designs,” Musharraf was quoted as saying by state-run Associated Press of Pakistan.\nKasuri said on CNN-IBN television that the attack was a “terrible act of terrorism,” adding that “the peace process must go on with greater vigor and greater determination.”\nThe fire engulfed two coaches of the Samjhauta Express, one of two train links between India and Pakistan, just before it reached the village of Dewana, about 50 miles north of New Delhi, said Babu Lal, a railway worker who heard the explosions that sparked the flames. The blaze spread quickly as the train kept moving.\nThe driver of the train apparently had no idea what was going on.\n“I saw flames leaping out of the windows,” said Vinod Kumar Gupta, the assistant manager in the Dewana station, and he ran to pull the signal ordering the train to stop.\nThe train – which normally races through this region at about 55 to 60 mph – took another five minutes to halt in nearby countryside, Kumar said.\nAs on most Indian trains, the windows of many cars are barred for security reasons, sealing in many victims, and officials said at least one door was fused shut by the intense heat.\n“We couldn’t save anyone,” said Rajinder Prasad, a laborer living near the tracks who raced with his neighbors to the fire, scooping water from a reservoir and throwing it at flames that shot high above the carriages. “They were screaming inside, but no one could get out.”\nEventually, he said, the screaming stopped.\n“From the less-damaged coach, some people were seen jumping out with their bodies on fire,” Bharti Arora, superintendent of the Haryana state railway police, told reporters.\nBut in the rear car, where flames were more intense, few escaped.\nSome people remained alive in the burning cars for nearly half an hour after the first explosion, said Rakesh Gautam, a reporter with the Hindi-language newspaper Dainik Jagran, one of the first people to arrive at the scene. “Inside you could see trapped people trying to break windows, but after a while the train got so hot that the efforts stopped,” he said.\nFire engines arrived about 45 minutes later, but it was another two hours until the flames were extinguished.\nArora put the death toll at 66. At least 30 passengers were hospitalized, officials said, with a dozen critically injured people brought to New Delhi.\nThe train was traveling from New Delhi to Atari, the last station before the Pakistan border. At Atari, passengers switch to a Pakistani train that takes them to Lahore, Pakistan.