At least four dead as passenger train derails in Pakistan’s Punjab province

At least four people were killed, and between 17 and 30 others were injured early Tuesday morning, October 13, when the Rehman Baba Express derailed near Multan in southern Punjab province.

What occurred during the early morning derailment near Sher Shah Bridge?

The passenger train, which was traveling along the main railway artery from the southern port city of Karachi to the northwestern provincial capital of Peshawar, went off the tracks near Sher Shah Bridge in Multan district at approximately 5:20 AM. Emergency rescue teams, including 11 ambulances and dozens of paramedics, were dispatched to the accident site, pulling victims from overturned carriages and transferring the injured to Nishtar Hospital in Multan for urgent medical treatment.

Railway traffic along the affected junction was immediately suspended as crane units and recovery teams worked to clear the tracks. Eyewitnesses and local officials reported that nearly all coaches of the passenger express derailed, leaving several bogies overturned on the embankment. Authorities deployed relief trains to transport stranded passengers onward to Peshawar as the site was cordoned off for technical evaluation.

How have authorities responded amid persistent railway infrastructure challenges?

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif issued separate statements expressing deep grief over the loss of life, directing provincial health authorities to provide the best possible medical care to the injured and ordering an immediate, transparent inquiry to determine the exact cause of the accident.

The disaster underscores the long-standing vulnerabilities of Pakistan Railways’ aging, colonial-era infrastructure, which covers roughly 7,500 kilometers of track and carries over 80 million passengers annually.

Tuesday's incident follows a series of deadly rail accidents in recent years, including the August 2023 derailment of the Hazara Express near Nawabshah, Sindh, which killed over 30 passengers. While modernization initiatives have been slated under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Main Line-1 (ML-1) upgrade project, deferred maintenance, outdated signaling, and track fatigue continue to pose persistent operational hazards.

According to reporting by Radio Pakistan, Pakistan Railways has established a high-level inquiry board to determine whether track subsidence, mechanical failure, or signaling defects led to the derailment.