Click to play videoNew Delhi: A day after the Samjhauta Blasts, damage control has begun at the Old Delhi Railway Station - albeit a little too late.
Documents available with CNN-IBN show that not only was the security drill compromised, but some passengers boarded the train without valid travel documents - a visa and a passport, which is mandatory if you want to travel across the border.
At least nine passengers on the Samjhauta Express had no passport. The Passenger Manifest, or a reservation chart that was prepared soon after the blasts at Panipat, lists out the name and passport details of every passenger.
Kamrul Khan was travelling in a reserved compartment, but the chart says that he did not have a passport.
A P Shaina was also travelling in a reserved compartment without a passport. A third person, Abdul Jameer Khan was travelling with two other people. The name and identities of these two have been listed just as +2.
Abdul Jameer insists that all passports got destroyed in the fire. The Railways say they have no passport details available for Jameer and his co-passengers even in their records prepared at Delhi.
All this shows the clear lapse in the hi-security Samjhauta Express where a reservation chart cannot be made without a passport and a ticket number.
Says Divisional Railway Manager, Northern Railways, Rajesh Saxena, "We have taken action against some employees because the passport numbers don't tally with the actual numbers on passports."
Railways has suspended two junior level employees and investigations are now focusing on the identities of these passengers. Security agencies are also looking at old Railways records for similar lapses.
Security was on top of the Government's agenda, especially after the Mumbai blasts and given the fact that India is top on the terror hit list, but after the CNN-IBN expose, it seems these concerns are mainly on paper, even for a train like the Samjhauta Express meant to improve ties between India and Pakistan.
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