According to reports, the express train, with passengers traveling home for Id al-Adha, the end of the pilgrimage to Mecca, was traveling from Karachi to Lahore at around 2.00 am when 12 of its 16 compartments were derailed.

Although the reason behind the derailment is yet to be ascertained, the authorities have ruled out the possibilities of subversive activities by terrorists in this case. Senior railway officials said that the initial reports suggest that a welded joint in the track broke owing to contraction in the extreme cold.

As the news of the accident spread like wildfire, rangers, police as well as local residents responded for rescue work. Rescue operators and local people have recovered 40 bodies from the ill-fated train, while search for more bodies were on.

Rescue workers have now asked for cutting machines to split open the overturned compartments of the train to recover more bodies from the wreckage. Meanwhile, railway officials said that another train was rushed to the accident site to carry the injured to Lahore.

Some of the injured have been shifted to a nearby hospital. The doctors apprehend that the number of casualties will rise further. On the other hand, doctors attending on the injured have appealed to the people to donate blood as the condition of many of the injured were reported to be still critical.

Announcements for blood donations were made from the mosques in Mehrabpur, while all the local hospitals have summoned all their staff to tackle with the emergency.

It may be mentioned here that about 130 people died in a July 2005 accident when three trains collided in Pakistan's southern town of Ghokti.

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