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A30 world news
Diamars 8 Juni 2021

Train barrels into another in Pakistan, killing at least 51

said he braked when he saw Azam Swati, the minister for some of the passengers on the
the disabled train but did not railways who headed to the Millat Express were heading
have time to avoid the colli- scene of the crash. He told to a wedding party.
sion. The Associated Press that all
aspects would be examined, Mohammad Amin, one of
About 1,100 passengers were including the possibility of the passengers on the Mil-
aboard the two trains, rail of- sabotage. lat Express who had minor
ficials said. injuries, told the AP from a
The segment of the railway hospital that before the train
“The challenge for us is to tracks where the crash took departed from the southern
quickly rescue those passen- place was old and needed port city of Karachi, he and
gers who are still trapped in replacing, Habibur Rehman his brother saw mechanics
the wreckage,” said Umar Gilani, chairman of Pakistan working on one of the cars.
Tufail, a police chief in the Railways, told Pakistan’s Geo
district. News TV. He did not elabo- That led them to believe
rate. there was something wrong
(AP) — An express train Heavy machinery arrived The death toll steadily rose with it, but they were reas-
barreled into another that to cut open some cars, and through the day, and the Aijaz Ahmed, the driver of sured all was fine. Amin said
had derailed in Pakistan more than 15 hours after chances of finding survivors the Sir Syed Express, told the he believed the car that was
before dawn Monday, kill- the crash, rescuers carefully were diminishing, said Riz- station that on seeing the de- being worked on was the one
ing at least 51 people and removed wreckage as they wan Nazir, a district admin- railed train, he tried his best that later derailed. Railway
setting off a desperate ef- looked for anyone who might istration official. to avoid the crash by braking officials said they were re-
fort to search the crum- remain trapped — though but failed. Railway officials cording statements of survi-
pled cars for survivors and hopes were fading for survi- Authorities brought in lights said Ahmed was slightly in- vors, including the drivers.
the dead, authorities said. vors. The military deployed so rescuers could work jured, and villagers pulled Train accidents are common
troops, engineers and heli- through the night. Relatives him from the train’s engine in Pakistan, where successive
More than 100 other people copters to assist. of some of the missing pas- after the crash. governments have paid little
were injured. Cries for help sengers waited nearby. attention to improving the
pierced the night as passen- The Millat Express train de- Pakistani Prime Minister Im- poorly maintained signal sys-
gers climbed out of over- railed around 3:30 a.m., and Passengers with critical in- ran Khan expressed his deep tem and aging tracks.
turned or crushed rail cars. the Sir Syed Express train hit juries were to be brought by sorrow over the tragedy, say-
The pleas continued to echo it minutes later, said Usman helicopter to a nearby hospi- ing on Twitter that he asked In 1990, a packed passen-
throughout the day at the Abdullah, a deputy com- tal. the railway minister to super- ger plowed into a standing
scene in the district of Ghot- missioner of Ghotki. It was vise the rescue work and or- freight train in southern Pak-
ki, in the southern province not immediately clear what Engineers and experts were dered a probe into the crash. istan, killing 210 people in
of Sindh. caused the derailment, and trying to determine what the worst rail disaster in the
the driver of the second train caused the collision, said According to local media, nation’s history.

Israel suspends ultranationalists' march in east Jerusalem

(AP) — Israeli police said Mon- to go through the Old City’s Muslim Before Muna al-Kurd was freed, po- sends the matter back to the Supreme
day they blocked a planned pro- Quarter, is seen by Palestinians as a lice briefly clashed with a crowd out- Court, which is expected to rule
cession by Jewish ultranational- provocation. side the station, throwing stun gre- against the families.
ists through parts of Jerusalem’s nades at the protesters.
Old City, following warnings that In a statement, police said the pro- Ir Amim, an Israeli human rights
it could reignite tensions that led posal to hold the parade later this Israel captured east Jerusalem, which group that closely follows the vari-
to a punishing 11-day war with week was not approved, but new is home to sites sacred to Jews, Chris- ous court cases, says the four families
Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers last plans would be considered. Organiz- tians and Muslims, in the 1967 war could be evicted within the coming
month. ers accused the police of caving in to and annexed it in a move not recog- month, and that the attorney gen-
pressure from Hamas. nized internationally. Israel views the eral’s decision could affect the cases
The parade, which celebrates Israel’s entire city as its capital, while the Pal- of more than 80 other families threat-
capture of east Jerusalem in the 1967 Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the far- estinians want east Jerusalem as the ened with eviction.
Mideast war, was underway on May right Religious Zionism party, tweet- capital of their future state.
10 when Hamas fired rockets from ed a warning to embattled Prime “It paves the way for the evictions
Gaza toward the holy city, setting off Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “not The settlers are using a 1970 law that to be carried out,” said Amy Cohen,
heavy fighting. Some 254 people were to give in to Hamas threats.” allows Jews to reclaim formerly Jew- a spokeswoman for Ir Amim. But
killed in Gaza and 13 in Israel before ish properties lost during the 1948 she added that Israeli authorities still
a cease-fire took effect May 21. Renewed tensions in east Jerusalem war surrounding Israel’s creation, have various options for postponing
or fighting with Hamas could com- a right denied to Palestinians who or halting the evictions. “There still is
The war was preceded by weeks of plicate Israel’s shaky politics. Netan- lost property in the same conflict. At room for political intervention,” she
clashes between Israeli police and yahu’s opponents last week said they least 150 Palestinian households, in said.
Palestinian demonstrators in the Old have formed a coalition that could re- Sheikh Jarrah and the neighborhood
City and in the nearby neighbor- move the prime minister from office of Silwan, both near the Old City, are The threatened evictions have been
hood of Sheikh Jarrah, where Jewish after a 12-year term. The new coali- at risk of eventual eviction. widely criticized internationally, in-
settlers have waged a decades-long tion is expected to be sworn into of- cluding by the United States, Israel’s
campaign to evict Palestinian families fice in the coming days. A request by the attorney general at closest ally.
from their homes. the height of the tensions last month
Over the weekend, Israeli police ar- led to the postponement of a Su-
Israel’s attorney general on Monday rested and released a veteran reporter preme Court hearing on the most
declined to intervene in the cases for the Al Jazeera satellite channel imminent evictions, of four extended
of several of the families, making it who had regularly been covering the families comprising six households in
more likely the evictions will be car- Sheikh Jarrah protests. And on Sun- Sheikh Jarrah.
ried out — possibly in the coming day, authorities stormed the home
weeks. That could also reignite vio- of a leading activist in the neighbor- But in a statement issued Monday,
lence. hood, arresting her and her brother. Attorney General Avichai Mandel-
The siblings were later released. blit said “there is no place” for him
The procession, which had intended to intervene in the proceedings. That