Kin face problem in identifying victims

Relatives of the victims keep coming at the Panipat civil hospital after a tiring journey from Wagah border post.

At an age when she should have been taken care of by the family, 70-year-old Fazal Bibi has left the safe confines of her hearth in Lahore in search of her grandson and sister-in-law, who have been missing since the Sunday blasts on the Samjhauta Express.

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Relatives of the victims kept coming here at the civil hospital till the early hours of the day after a long and tiring journey from Wagah border post.

Fazal Bibi, who arrived here around midnight to a warm welcome in a cold night, maintained a stoic silence as she was shown the charred remains of the victims.

She was looking for her grandson Kamran (24) and sister-in-law Aashiyan (80) who were visting their relatives in Deoband in Uttar Pradesh.

"My relatives here saw them off at the Delhi railway station and it is difficult for me to identify them among the dead," Fazal Bibi said.

Rohilla Wakeel, in her twenties, has come looking for her father Mohammad Wakeel from Afzabad district in Pakistan's Punjab province.

"He was wearing a black coat, white shirt -- all stitched at a shop Akram Tailors back home," she told the Paksitan High Commission officials.

Even she had difficulty in identifying her father from among the dead.

Rohilla showed photographs of her father and her relatives staying in a village near here to aid the identification process.

"He used to wear a silver wrist watch with a string," she said.