Amritsar: Two days after tragedy struck Amritsar as the train ran over 60 people at the venue of a Dussehra event, residents on Sunda rejected the driver’s claim that he had decided against stopping after the crowd began throwing stones.
Local councillor Shailender Singh Shally recalling the horrific incident claimed that the train did not even slow down — let alone stop.
“It seemed as if the driver wanted to run over us. The train passed us in a matter of seconds. Would it have been logically possible for us to throw stones at the train when we were in such a state of shock, when there were so many people lying dead and injured around us? The driver is lying,” Shally was quoted in a report.
The incident has resulted in an uproar in the state, with attempts by protesters to block the railway route giving rise to clashes with the police.
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Meanwhile, the opposition parties are blaming the ruling Congress, accusing its leaders of negligence.
The driver said in his statement that although he applied the “emergency brakes” as soon as he saw the crowd, he could not stop the train in time. He also claimed to have honked the engine horn repeatedly to make people move off the tracks.
“The people began throwing stones at the train when it was on the verge of stopping. As I had the safety of my passengers in mind, I continued towards Amritsar and informed the officials concerned about the accident,” he said in the statement.
“There are hundreds of videos showing how fast the train went. We didn’t even get a chance to react. All we could hear was the sound of people screaming and crying,” another eyewitness Paramjeet Singh countered the driver’s claims.