New Delhi:
On Wednesday, a son snapped a photo of his mother at the railway station in Lucknow, where he saw her off on the daily superfast Pushpak Express to Mumbai, not knowing it would be the last time he would see her alive.
Hours later, the mother, Kamala Bhandari, 43, a resident of Mumbai's Colaba area, was among 13 people, including an 11-year-old boy, who died when the train crossed Jalgaon in Maharashtra.
The son, Tapendra Bhandari, had to face the shock and trauma.
Authorities believe some passengers, alarmed by what they thought were sparks – due to 'locked brakes' – on the bus, jumped off the train and were run over from the opposite direction by another – the Karnataka Express. The Railway Ministry later confirmed that there were no sparks in the carriage.
READ | 13 dead after jumping off train over rumor of fire, only to be hit by another
The incident happened at around 5pm and harrowing images from the scene showed bodies lying on rails while injured passengers wandered around with blood everywhere.
So far, not all thirteen people who died have been identified; as of Thursday morning there were only eight.
But of those eight, four are from Nepal, including Ms. Bhandari and a man named Lachchiram Pasi, whose family not only had to come to terms with his death but also identify his mutilated body. “Some parts of his hands and legs were missing,” his cousin Ramrang Pasi told news agency PTI.
Mr. Pasi was in his 50s, his cousin said, and from Nepal's Narainpur Banke district. He traveled from Nepal to Thane, via Lucknow, with five-day bets that managed to survive.
READ | “Everyone jumped on the tracks”: Passenger on Jalgaon train horror
Like Mr Pasi, Ms Bhandari's son had to identify his mother's body.
Heartbreaking footage showed the young man being escorted across the section of track where his mother's body was found. He had bits of clothing, probably what was left of his mother's clothes, clutched to his chest and understandably still seemed to be in shock.
Kamala Bhandari at the railway station in Lucknow
One video showed him kneeling in front of some blood-stained pebbles. He grabbed a few, washed them with some water from a bottle and pressed them to his chest as well.
And on the issue of repatriation of Ms Bhandari's body to her home country, Mr Bhandari sought assistance from the authorities to transport it by road or air.
According to PTI, the two others from Nepal were Javakala Bhate, 60, who lived in Bhiwandi in Thane, and 11-year-old Imtiyaz Ali.
Meanwhile, in Davos before the World Economic Forum, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis expressed their grief and announced Rs 5 lakh to each of the thirteen families. The state, Fadnavis also said, would bear the medical expenses of the injured.
The Railway Protection Force and the Government Railway Police have launched a joint investigation into the incident, which also left 15 people injured.
With input from agencies
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