Relatives of ‘missing’ passengers on the S-11 coach of the Tamil Nadu Express that went up in flames on Monday morning, had a harrowing time here trying to locate their kin.
Despite reaching Nellore after taking a special train from Chennai Central, they did not know where to look for those passengers who names did not figure either in the lists of the ‘injured’ or the ‘dead’.
Since many bodies were not identified as they were charred beyond recognition, they didn’t know what to tell their dear ones back home.
Umar, a 65-year-old gems merchant doing business in Rajamundhry, could not identify the body of his 40-year-old son-in-law V S Mohammed, who boarded the coach at Vijayawada with a confirmed ticket to Chennai.
While they found two bodies of circumcised men, both of them charred beyond recognition, they wanted to go for a DNA test. But with officials saying that it could be a long-drawn process that might take at least 10 days, he was waiting for other relatives to arrive and find a way of identifying the body.
Mohammed was travelling with a relative, Ahmed, to Kayalpattinam in Tamil Nadu, from where the family hails. Since only one of their tickets was confirmed, Ahmed went to the general compartment, despite Mohammed insisting that both travel in the same coach, saying that could share the berth.
Sound asleep in the general compartment, Ahmed was not aware of the pre-dawn blaze till 6.30 am when he woke up.
Another person from Chennai, Maria Selvam, travelled by the special train searching for five of his relatives, including a cousin, 32-year-old Ponmani, who was returning to Chennai after spending some time with her husband working for the bomb squad of the Delhi Police.
Along with Ponmani, her 28-year-old brother Thavamani, two young daughters, Rose Mary and Joss Mary, and mother-in-law Elizabeth were on the ill-fated train. Their bodies are yet to be traced. The family hails from near Alangulam in Tirunelveli district.
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