Two blasts, bogies on fire and 68 bodies. There is also another story: of a long one hour — when people fought death in vain, with no help in sight. And how they died. Not many survived to tell this story.

The actual blasts killed very few. Most died due to the raging fire. There was, for instance, Yashmin Akhtar, who suffered no burns but died due to asphyxiation. At least a dozen helpless people died while jumping off the train, with their bodies on fire. The police found these bodies lying alongside the two-kilometre-long track that the train covered before coming to a halt.

There was courage on display in the hour before the first fire brigade had reached: ASI Kashmir Singh of the RPF pushed at least five persons to safety before collapsing to death, his half-burnt revolver found in the debris. Alongside was found a headless body, probably of an RPF constable. Its existence perplexed the police, who put the death count at “67 or 68”. The police, incidentally, is the authority that does the head count in such situations.

But this body was one from the bogey whose doors never opened until over three hours after the blast when the gas-cutters could come. No one survived in that bogey. So there was no one to tell the horrific story about how people died banging at doors that were sealed in the name of security. The other bogey would have met exactly the same fate — but its doors had been opened 15 minutes before the blast to let the bombers get off — and the 12 survivors in it should perhaps thank the Almighty for that.

... contd.