Army chief meets Raiwind Tablighi Ijtima leaders: DG ISPR

ISLAMABAD: Top leaders of the Raiwind Tablighi Ijtimaa on Monday met Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa, a spokesperson for the Pakistan Army said.

"Notables of Raiwind Tablighi Ijtimaa met COAS," the director-general of the Inter-Services Public Relations, Major General Asif Ghafoor, wrote on Twitter.

"Army Chief offered Fateha for departed souls in tragic Tezgam train incident. Also prayed for early recovery of the injured," Maj Gen Ghafoor added.

More than 70 people had been killed and scores of others injured in a horrific train accident late last month when cooking gas cylinders had exploded near Rahim Yar Khan's Liaqatpur area.

Read more: Death toll from Tezgam train fire climbs to 74

The Tezgam train was on its way from Karachi to Rawalpindi when the gas cylinder carried by a passenger had exploded, with the fire destroying three carriages, including two economy- and one business-class carriage.

Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed had said men from the tablighi ijtimaa were travelling in the carriage where the incident occurred. "Bogies were severely damaged by the fire and they have been detached by the rest of the train,” he had said.

“Two cooking stoves blew up. They were cooking, they had [cooking] oil which added fuel to fire," Rasheed had told Geo News. “Most deaths occurred from people jumping off the train.”

Also read: Tezgam fire eyewitness disputes Sheikh Rasheed's statement

Speaking to the media, Rasheed had said Ameer Hussain of tableeghi jamaat had booked the two carriages. “It was our negligence that they were allowed to board with gas cylinders,” he had added.

Footage from the location showed flames pouring out of three carriages as people could be heard crying during the incident. Some of the victims died after leaping from carriages to escape the inferno, authorities said.

Railway officials said there were more than 200 passengers travelling in the three carriages.

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