SUKKUR: Vigilance of the driver of the 14-Down Awami Express averted a major passenger train derailment at Rohri Junction this af ternoon [Feb 3].

The Awami Express, carrying about 1,000 stranded passengers to Karachi under Police escort, went off the rails soon after it had steamed out of Rohri Junction.

Mischief-makers, presumably railmen on strike, had tampered with the track during the one-hour long interval between the passage of Chenab Express and Awami Express.

Chenab Express safely passed but Awami Express got derailed near the distant signal.

The Chenab Express, however, was not said to have reached Tando Adam till late tonight.

A spokesman of the railway said, there was no immediate hope of repair of the damaged track.

At several points along the track here, saboteurs have damaged the track-cross-over levers and brokenrods ofthelevercan be seen atseveral places.

At other places, the gap at track junctions has been filled with stones to make track-cross-over problematic. Correspondent [Meanwhile, as reported by our correspondent in Lahore,] six persons were injured, one of them seriously, as a result of lathi-charge and firing by the police and army here.

According to the of ficial spokesman, the trouble started in the morning [Feb 3] when about 700 workers who were blocking the track refused to vacate it. They brickbatted the policemen, resulting in serious injuries to two constables. The police then resorted to lathi-charge which was followed by firing by the police and the army.