‘THE THOUGHT OF ACCIDENT TERRIFIES ME’

Mohammed Dilshad, 48, is nursing a broken spleen and a wounded leg at the district hospital here. On his lips are these words: “Kudrat ka karishma hai (it’s a miracle of God)”.

A native of this UP town, Dilshad frequently takes the PuriHaridwar Utkal Express for Delhi where he works. On the fateful Saturday evening, he ended up being locked inside the S-2 coach — the carriage that had climbed on to another during the accident.

“We were all hanging precariously in the carriage. Many of my fellow passengers suffered terrible injuries. All I recall is that there was a very loud thud around 5.40pm and then the bogie swerved over another,” he said.

The S-2 coach suffered such a massive impact that all its wheels came off and it ended up dangling on the pantry car, with its one end ramming the facade of a house nearby. “The doors were crushed, so we went to the emergency windows and then, slowly, we all climbed down to the roof of the coach below and eventually to the ground,” Dilshad said.

Shariq Nasim, 32, says he gets nightmares and his head whirls. “I got hit on my head. I can’t even recall if I was in S-5 or S-6. Mere thought of the accident terrifies me,” said the resident. “Fiftynine injured were brought to our hospital on Saturday. As of now, 39 patients are here,” chief medical superintendent of Muzaffarnagar District Hospital, Dr PK Agarwal, said. PTI