M A I N   N E W S

4-year-old loses mother, brother
Deepkamal Kaur
Tribune News Service

Mukerian/Dasuya, December 14
Lying on the bed of the Mukerian Civil Hospital, a four-year-old injured Komal was not aware that her mother and brother along with whom she was travelling in the Jalandhar-Pathankot DMU were no more.

Almost in a state of shock after the rail accident at Maansar village of Mukerian, little Komal suffered injuries under her left eye and arm.

The girl along with her mother, Bholi, and 11-year old brother, Pawan Kumar, all residents of Pathankot, were returning from her maternal grandmother’s house in Bhangal village.

The trio had just boarded the train at the small halt station at Bhangal, just 2km away from the site of the accident.

While the little girl was being taken care of by her maternal grandma, Ms Mindo, at the Civil Hospital, her uncle (mama) was away to look after the rest of the family members. With tears in her eyes, little Komal kept on asking about her mother and her brother.

The father of the child was yet to be informed about the accident

“My son had just dropped the three at Bhangal station and come back home, when we received information that the DMU had met with an accident. We rushed to the site.

It took us almost four hours to get the information about little Komal,” said the grandma with tears in her eyes. She did not even know about the death of her daughter and grandson. It was at Dasuya Civil Hospital mortuary that their bodies had been brought and were later identified by some relatives.

That was not all. Still more sad was the tale of one-year-old Arun, admitted at Dasuya Civil Hospital, whose mother died in the accident. Sunaina alias Chhoti, the mother of the child, was declared “brought dead” by the doctors of the same hospital. The mother-son duo, both originally hailing from Madhya Pradesh, were residing at Mukerian.

The scene outside the mortuary of Dasuya Civil Hospital was also very remorseful as three members of a family from Pathankot were identified by their kin.

Two daughters and a mother were travelling in the ill-fated train when the tragedy struck and cut short their journey. Neelamjit Kaur, Baljinder Kaur and Harpreet Kaur were all declared dead at the hospital and later identified by their relatives.

On the other hand, the driver of the Ahmedabad-Jammu Express, Mr Harjinder Singh, had a miraculous escape, while his two colleagues on board the same engine died.