Accusing the Punjab’s Congress government for lapses in allowing celebrations near railway tracks, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal said the Amritsar train tragedy was not an accident bur a ‘massacre’. “This is a mass murder...no...it’s a mass massacre,” Badal said on Saturday. “The action taken in the matter is shameful and inadequate,” he added.

Badal’s remarks came after Union Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha said that his ministry must not be blamed for any lapses leading to the horrific train accident in Amritsar that killed 58 people on Friday. “Let’s not begin with the blame game. It is not the right time for it,” Sinha said, adding that there was no provision of barricading along railway tracks across the country.

According to the minister, the Railways was never informed about the Dussehra event would be conducted near the Jora Phatak vicinity either by the area administration or the event organisers

"In fact, the Commissioner (Amritsar) in his report has said he has not granted permission to hold the Dussehra festival at the spot," Sinha, who visited the accident site at midnight, told reporters.

At least 58 people died after being run over by a train while they were standing on the tracks to watch burning of Ravana effigy in Punjab's Choura Bazar near Amritsar on Friday evening. The injured were rushed to nearby hospitals.

The Opposition has slammed Punjab's Congress government for allowing a Dussehra event near railway tracks and accused ex-lawmaker Navjot Kaur Sidhu of running away from the site.