The man drove the locomotive at full speed for 35 kms before officials managed to derail it and avert a possible disaster late on Tuesday.
KARACHI: A suspected Indian national stole a railway engine in Pakistan's southern city of Karachi and tried to drive it into a passenger train in an attempted terror attack, police said on Wednesday.
The man drove the locomotive at full speed for 35 kilometres before officials managed to derail it and avert a possible disaster late Tuesday, railway police official Irshad Beg said.
Police identified the suspected Indian as Madan Lal, who is in his 50s. "We suspect that he stole the engine and drove it on the track to cause a terrorist attack," Beg said.
Lal's apparent target was a regular passenger service that was on the same track before it was diverted, he added. Two Pakistani men, a driver and a fireman, were also arrested for negligence.
Lal claimed that he was a Pakistani and stole the engine just to have a ride on the track. He refused to answer most questions.
Beg said the suspect would be produced before a local court and a thorough medical examination may be conducted to determine his mental health.
"He does not have anything to prove that he is a Pakistani citizen and we suspect him to be from the Indian state of Hyderabad," the policeman said.
Railway authorities were on Wednesday trying to shift the damaged engine from where it came to rest, close to a down-at-heel area used by homeless people for sleeping.
"We are trying to get out charpoys (light wood and cane beds) and other things which were crushed by the engine," said Mohammad Ameen, a veteran engineer driver supervising the track clearance.
"The engine could have crushed many people under its wheels if they had not woke up in time and run," he said.
Officials said there was minor damage to the train's wheels and bogeys.
Ameen said the man arrested over the incident must have had prior knowledge of train driving.
"It takes 20 years to be a qualified engine driver and the way he drove and controlled the engine shows he had a good command of its operation."
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