Identifying charred bodies a trauma

DEAD REMAINS: Medical workers bring in bodies of the victims, at a morgue in Panipat.

Featured Blog

Rajdeep Sardesai

Television, for politicians with a vision

Featured Slideshows

Related Headlines

powered by

• Blasts victims' bodies sent to Pak
• Body blow: Charred beyond repair
• Target Samjhauta: Was Govt sleeping?

Keywords: Identify, Relatives

Panipat: Going through the charred remains, family members of Samjhauta Express’s dead passengers are struggling to identify the mutilated bodies of their loved ones.

The victim’s kin have gone numb sifting through passports, and belongings found in the burnt coaches. According to the hospital reports, 14 bodies were identified and claimed till Tuesday. 7 of them were Pakistanis, 4 were women and two children. Six teams of army doctors arrived in Panipat to carry out the task of embalming them. They say identification is near impossible.

“Ideally we inject Formelene in the bodies. But in this particular situation, since these are burnt beyond recognition, they are injecting it in the tissues. Till whatever time we can keep them intact, we will keep.” Brigadier Amarjit Singh Dy Dir, Medical services.

Relatives of the victims are struggling to identify the bodies of their loved ones as the bodies are burnt beyond recognition. Some are badly mutilated while in some of the coffins mere body pieces are lying, unidentified.

“I'm still hopeful. Maybe he's lying unconscious somewhere,” said Manish Arora whose elder brother was the ticket collector on Samjhauta Express on Sunday night.

Manish said even after going through 35 bodies, he was not able to identify his brother’s remains. Every sheet that he lifts at the morgue of Panipat Civil Hospital, he is left more shaken, he said.

Manish is not the only one hanging between hope and despair. 65-year-old Safdar Ali Khan from Aligarh said he has been searching for his father-in-law who was traveling to Karachi on that fateful day. “The bodies are charred beyond recognition. They're mutilated. It's impossible to identify anyone,” he said.

Despite the stench and gloom relatives are not giving up hope. After all in this hour of tragedy that's all they have.