Indians overrun barriers at burial of unknown train blast victims
Afp, Mehrana
Hundreds of Indian Muslims clambered across barricades Saturday to force their way into a mass funeral of 23 Pakistanis killed in a firebomb attack on a cross-border train. "They may have come from across the borders but we are brothers," shouted Indian mourner Usman Ali as police cordoned off the mass burial site in the northern Indian village of Mehrana, 100km north of New Delhi. Undertakers, wearing surgical gloves and medical face masks against the stench of rotting flesh, lowered cheap wooden coffins into shallow graves as some mourners wiped tears. But it was a funeral of strangers with the remains of 23 victims charred beyond recognition. They were among 68 people killed in twin blasts last Sunday at midnight aboard the Pakistan-bound "Friendship Express" which prompted worldwide condemnation and an intense manhunt across India for the attackers.
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Indian workers of the Waqft Board and local Muslim residents bury unidentified victims of the Samjhauta Express train blasts during a mass funeral ceremony at the Mehrana village outside Panipat, some 100 km north of New Delhi yesterday. PHOTO: AFP |
