Lahore:
Flight incidents in Pakistani railways have reached alarming levels, with moving trains, stationary cars and even sophisticated IT signaling systems which are prey to criminals, initiates revealed on Wednesday.
Despite the high complaints of the new minister of railways, the railway police and the administrative machines seem to be in a deep sleep, unable to contain the growing wave of potentially paralyzing crimes of railway operations.
The sources have said that the state of things continues to deteriorate because the investigations reveal that not only the passengers were drugged and stolen aboard moving trains, but that the specialized copper wiring and other key assets were stolen in the middle of the first year.
“Public relations transport nearly 50 million passengers each year and transport thousands of tonnes of karachi freight to the remote parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. However, the security measures through the network are seriously lacking,” they said.
Daily flights of precious materials from various trains, stations and installations, including Lahore, have become a disturbing routine.
Last week, a precious cargo was stolen from loaded cars parked at Pattoki station. The 56 wagons were on the road from Karachi to Lahore and were motionless in Pattoki for a few hours when thieves hit.
Consequently, the wagons, stripped of their equipment, were made non -operational and had to be filled with replacement materials before being shipped.
Likewise, in the old railway hangar, key components such as electric tracks and sockets were stolen. In addition, the computer locking system has not been spared, thieves dig underground to extract its crucial pieces.
In another incident, electric wires from the former Hangar Diesel have been stolen.
Public relations sources have said that the situation was disastrous, warning that repeated and growing flights of underground CBI components are a serious threat to the integrity of the system. They also warned that the maintenance of infrastructure has become extremely difficult, if not impossible, due to violations.
Meanwhile, in the light of the deterioration of the situation, the rail authorities urgently called on the rail police to implement immediate and strict measures to protect this critical infrastructure.
In order to fight against the crisis, the Inspector General of the Rao Tahir Railway Police summoned an emergency meeting to discuss the strategies to combat equipment theft.
During the session, the question of uniform distribution in a timely manner and budgetary allowances was also discussed.
The IG has asked all SPs to focus specifically on prevention of railway materials, in particular signal equipment, which has been targeted on several occasions.
