Hours after 60 helpless Dussehra revellers were mowed down by a train here in Punjab, Chairman Railway Board Ashwani Lohani on Saturday dismissed the railways' responsibility in the tragedy. Lohani said at Jora Phatak the Jalandhar-Amritsar Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) passenger train which was running at its assigned speed, its loco-pilot applied brakes to slow it down. "Trains run at their assigned speed and people are not expected to go on the tracks. It was a clear case of trespassing.

"There was no intimation to the railways regarding this (Dussehra) event adjoining the railway track," Lohani told reporters here. The accident happened near Dhobi Ghat on Friday evening when the people who had come to see the burning of the Ravan effigy. Lohani said the accident site falls under the "mid-section of the two stations" where the trains run at their "assigned speed" as per the condition of the track.