With the charred bodies of the victims of the twin blasts on the India-Pakistan peace train decomposing fast, a decision on giving them a mass burial is likely to be taken on Friday.

The Panipat district administration on Thursday sent a communication to the Haryana government seeking approval for mass burial of the remaining bodies as they were getting decomposed despite the use of chemicals to preserve them.

Only 32 of the 66 victims, whose bodies are kept at the civil hospital premises here, have been identified so far and there is little chance that the others will be identified at all because they are badly charred.

Most of the 32, including 26 Pakistanis, have been taken away by relatives to their native places in India and Pakistan. Some of the Pakistani nationals were being buried by relatives in India itself.

Twelve bodies were allowed to be carried through the Wagah joint border checkpost between India and Pakistan, 30 km ahead of the Sikh holy city of Amritsar on Thursday.

The twin blasts on Sunday night enflamed two bogies of the Samjhauta Attari special train near Diwana village, 10 km from Panipat, leaving 68 Pakistan-bound passengers dead and nearly 50 injured.

Sources in the district administration said on Friday that they were waiting for directions from the state government and the central ministry of external affairs (MEA) regarding the disposal of the bodies.

Additional Deputy Commissioner Amit Aggarwal said that all methods, like injecting chemicals, had failed to stop the decomposition of the bodies. The bodies are lying inside the civil hospital premises here since Monday morning in wooden coffins.

"A very foul smell has started emanating from the bodies," a doctor at the hospital said.

District officials here have even identified two sites for mass burial of the remaining bodies. "This would be done only after clearance from the MEA and the state government," Aggarwal said.

Haryana chief secretary Prem Prashant is said to be in touch with senior MEA officials in this regard.

The MEA, it is learnt, is in consultation with their counterparts in Pakistan to ensure that there are no claims and objections after the mass burial is allowed.

Nearly 250 relatives of the victims and 'missing persons' on the ill-fated train have been camping here since Monday to look for their kin who had boarded the train Sunday night from Old Delhi.

Around 30 relatives of victims have come on special visas from Pakistan. Most of them have been disappointed as they are unable to recognise