This Eid al-Adha turned out to be a day of sacrifice for Fazlur Rahman, 28, and his friends in more ways than one.

Fazlur had just finished offering Eid prayers at the local mosque at Chhoto Nirmaljote village, Darjeeling district, with friends and family and was preparing for the feast and celebrations when a loud explosion shook everyone.

"We had started offering prayers from 8am and had just finished namaz when we heard a loud explosion," Fazlur said.

After the initial shock, they all realised the sound could only mean an accident on the railway tracks, about half a kilometre away, and set off for the site.

It was about 8.55am. "After walking a short distance, we saw that several railway coaches had been derailed," Fazlur said.

The Sealdah-bound Kanchenjunga Express from Agartala had been rammed from the rear by a goods train.

Several villagers started dashing across the paddy fields towards the accident spot. Fazlur was among the first to reach the site.

On a day Bengal witnessed one of the year's worst railway disasters, several youths from this minority-dominated village, 25km from Siliguri town, responded to what they termed "the call of humanity" to rescue and assist strangers in a crisis.

The feast and the celebrations did not cross their minds once in the face of the human tragedy.

Several villagers told The Telegraph the scenes were heart-rending.

"The scene at the accident spot was scary.... Coaches had been derailed. Some people lay unconscious, some were bleeding heavily, women and children were crying. I had never before been in such a situation," said Fazlur, who was marshalling his friends to help the injured while speaking to this newspaper.

He added: "Several people from our village were at the spot, and we decided to split into groups and begin the rescue work."

While some groups helped the injured and pulled out the bodies, others collected the luggage and assembled them in one place.

"We wanted to make sure that the luggage did not get lost in the melee," said Mohammed Hakim, another youth.

The youths guarded the luggage until forces from Phasidewa police station and railway officials arrived about half an hour later. Many of the villagers stayed back till late in the afternoon.

“It’s a special day for our community but this thought became secondary. The entire focus of all the villagers present was to help the passengers.... We had to respond to the call of humanity,” Hakim said.

Some villagers brought water while others tried to help by providing first aid in whatever way they could.

Mohammed Azibul, a migrant labourer in his late 20s who had returned home to celebrate Eid with his family, said the villagers had pulled out a half-dozen bodies from the bogies before the railway and district authorities arrived.