It is the poor man’s vehicle across the border—an unreserved ticket of just over Rs 100 can get you from Delhi to Attari on the border and then on to Lahore. The midnight tragedy on the Attari Special last Sunday—68 died and for the first time on Indian soil most of the victims were Pakistanis—was well-timed just a day before the visit of Pakistan Foreign Minister and a few weeks before the meeting of the Indo-Pak joint terror mechanism.

The plan: create a Godhra-like atmosphere?

Investigation shows the tragedy was waiting to happen. Security checks on the sensitive train and the Delhi railway station were rare and inadequate. Luggage was hardly screened; tickets for the unreserved bogies could be bought even a few hours before the train left—often without even proffering the passports. Guests were also allowed to sit in the bogies till the train left. There were no CCTVs at Platform No 18 at the heritage railway station from where the train left. Nor were any sniffer dogs deployed. The perpetrators knew all this, and the fact that tighter checks would begin only at Attari when the train rolled on to Pakistan soil. Police now say the perpetrators even did a recce of the train—and the plan to place the bombs from Delhi was a cakewalk. They chose a Sunday night, catching a sleeping security mechanism off-guard.

Four bombs in suitcase, petrol-chemical cocktail

Initial investigation points to four bombs being planted on the train, all believed packed in similar suitcases, each one weighing almost 20 kg. Two exploded, one burst later when the police tried to defuse it, and the fourth was successfully detonated. The bombs, Home Minister Shivraj Patil said,were “unique and never seen in India before”.

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