As he downed the Gate Number 47 level crossing at around 11.45 pm on Sunday night, a kilometre before the little-known Diwana railway station, gateman Pawan Kumar had little idea how many lives he was going to save in the next few minutes. But for his timely action, the number of coaches of the 4001 Delhi-Attari Special burned down could have been much higher, the toll higher too.

It was Kumar, who first heard the twin blasts on the train and alerted the Assistant Station Master at Diwana railway station on phone. Once they got the message, officials at the station alerted both the driver and the guard on the train about the explosion and asked them to bring the train to a halt immediately.

"Hadn't Kumar acted swiftly, the train would have continued running with the possibilities of more coaches catching fire," a railway official at Diwana railway station said. "One can imagine how big the fire was considering the fact that both the coaches completely burned down and killed so many people in a distance of under 3 km and in just about 4 minutes between the blasts being heard and the train coming to a halt," he added.

"The train crossed Gate Number 47 at 11.53 pm. It appeared to be running at around 100 kmph. And since this train doesn't stop at our station, it almost goes unnoticed," Pawan Kumar told The Indian Express. "Within a minute of the train passing through my gate, I heard two blasts, one after the other. I immediately informed the Diwana railway station that I had heard some explosive sounds on the train," Kumar added.

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