After nearly 30 years, it is again a slow melange of death and debris between gate numbers 47 and 49. Since a collision between two trains in 1977 at the Diwana station, life on the 3-km stretch between the gates was back on the fast track—until February 18 when the two points punctuated the journey to Lahore with blasts that led to an inferno in which 68 passengers died.

From the “up” and “down” trains thundering past the burnt bogies, passengers peer out to catch a glimpse of the horror. The images of the bogies, last disinfected on December 5, 2006, pass by in a blur. Cutting across fields, on their way to work at Sheena Exports, factory workers gasp at the gruesome sight of the carnage site. The staff of Diwana station walk past the location stoically, while their wives refuse to step out of their railway colony homes nearby to see the “site”. Farmhands hurry by, while students rev up their bikes on the dirt track that leads to the siding track where the charred bogies have been stationed. They all slow down, for a minute, mumble about the horror of it all and then allow the policemen on duty to nudge them along the tracks.

Meanwhile, hundreds of trains have made their journeys on the four tracks running through Diwana station, rattled villages have come together to celebrate two weddings, hesitantly distributed sweets to the policemen on duty and gone back to their fields saying that “life has to get back on track”.

... contd.