Aurangabad: Centre ensures 'safe journey' for 16 dead

Mumbai: They had started their journey on foot from Maharashtra hoping to reach Madhya Pradesh, but it was their bodies that reached their home districts of Shahdol and Umaria by special trains on Saturday afternoon.

The bodies of 16 migrant labourers, who were mowed down by a goods train in Maharashtra's Aurangabad district on Friday, were brought to Jabalpur by two bogies attached to a special train.

From Jabalpur, the coaches were further sent to Shahdol and Umaria, said a police officer. A bogie with five bodies reached Umaria around 3pm, where district officials received them and sent them to their villages in ambulances, he said.

The five deceased belonged to two villages Chilhari and Maman.Another bogie with 11 bodies reached Shahdol around 4pm.

Local Member of Parliament Himadri Singh and senior officials were present at the railway station.

These 11 deceased belonged to the villages of Antoli and Shahargarh of Shahdol district. In both the districts, officials accompanied the ambulances carrying the bodies to respective villages, where the last rites would be performed.

The 16 migrant workers sleeping on rail tracks while returning to Madhya Pradesh were crushed to death by a goods train in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra in the early hours of Friday.