Tired Migrants Didn’t Know Trains Were Running; Crushed On Tracks In Their Sleep!

NEW DELHI: In a distressing incident adding to the migrants crisis in the country, in the early hours of Friday night, 16 migrant workers sleeping on railway tracks were mowed down by a goods train in Maharashtra's Aurangabad district.

According to police, the migrants who were headed to Madhya Pradesh probably assumed that due to nationwide lockdown the trains were not running. Exhausted walking over 40 kms, they halted at Karmad, and slept on the tracks. As ill-fate would have it, they were run over by the passing goods train at Aurangabad, about 360 km from Mumbai, at around 5.30 am today morning.

The migrant workers in a group of 20 walking from Maharashtra's Jalna to Madhya Pradesh's Bhusaval, 157 km apart, on foot. There were no children in the group. They were workers at an iron factory in Jalna district.

Heart-wrenching visuals of footwear and other personal belongings were strewn on the railway tracks.

Not just that, even the rotis (flat bread) they were carrying for their journey also laid bare on the tracks.

The Railways Ministry in a tweet said that loco pilot of the train tried to stop but failed killing 16.

“During early hours today after seeing some labourers on track, loco pilot of goods train tried to stop the train but eventually hit them between Badnapur and Karmad stations in Parbhani-Manmad section. Injured have been taken to Aurangabad Civil Hospital. An inquiry has been ordered,” Ministry of Railways tweeted.

Senior police officer Mokshada Patil told a channel that four of the survivors, who are in shock, are being counselled by the police, while the fifth survivor has been admitted to hospital with injuries.

The accident survivors are being counselled, he said.

Also Read | Train Runs Over 15 Migrant Workers In Aurangabad