Many pilgrims among those who perished

For many who were travelling in the Indore-Rajendra Nagar Express train, the journey to pay obeisance at the famous Mahakaleshwar (Lord Shiva) Temple at Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh proved to be their last pilgrimage.

According to railway officials, a large number of passengers in the train that passes through Patna, Varanasi, Kanpur among other places in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, included pilgrims travelling to have darshan at the Mahakleshwar Temple.

Shyam Dutt Pandey, a resident of Varanasi, was one such pilgrim who lost his wife in the mishap. Pandey — who sustained injuries on his chest and head and was admitted to the district hospital — is unaware of his wife’s death. He asks anyone visiting him about his wife.

“We had gone to pay obeisance at the temple,” Shyam Dutt told DH as he lay on the hospital bed at Akbarpur, the district headquarters of Kanpur Dehat district. He has been praying for the safety of his wife knowing little that she is no more. He told DH that there were many other passengers in the S-2 coach in which he was travelling, who were returning home after having darshan at Mahakaleshwar Temple in Ujjain.

Shyam Dutt’s daughter, who was also travelling with him and survived, said that she came to know later that many of her co-passengers were killed in the mishap.
The journey also proved to be the last one for some others, who were on their way to attend social functions.

Pyare Lal, a resident of Indore, was on his way to Faizabad to attend a marriage ceremony of one of his relatives. He lost his daughter in the mishap. “She was so excited to attend the function,” an inconsolable Pyare Lal said from the hospital bed.