This act of Maoist is unpardonable

Rajabandh (West Midnapore), May 28: Suspected Maoist sabotage today derailed a Mumbai-bound train from Howrah, causing five coaches to tilt into the path of a goods train on the parallel tracks and killing at least 80 people.

Over 140 others were injured in the 1.25am tragedy near Jhargram, which the CPM held up as proof of a Trinamul Congress-Maoist nexus two days before the civic polls, prompting Mamata Banerjee, after what seemed like initial hesitation, to finger the Naxalites too

The train disaster, the worst in Bengal caused by subversion, comes days after the Maoists had targeted civilians in a bus in Chhattisgarh. Today’s carnage was apparently triggered by removal of the clips that fix the rails to the sleepers but a blast on the tracks has not been ruled out.

Railway officials said the goods train’s impact on coach S5 of the Howrah-Kurla Jnaneswari Express was so severe that its two walls “got pasted together”, sandwiching the passengers in between.

They added that the death toll could rise because till late in the evening, many were still trapped inside S3, S4, S5 and S6, the four non-AC sleeper coaches that took the brunt of the goods train’s impact.

Although 13 coaches had been derailed, only five had tilted towards the parallel tracks and got hit when the goods train arrived from the opposite direction within minutes.

The biggest train disaster on Bengal’s soil had taken place in August 1999 in North Dinajpur’s Gaisal, when two trains had collided and killed nearly 300 people, but it had been blamed not on sabotage but a signalling error.

State director-general of police Bhupinder Singh, who reached the spot this morning, did not confirm the blast and said that prima facie, the removal of the Pandrol clips over a stretch of 50 metres had led to the tragedy.

He said clips had been removed also from a roughly equal stretch of the parallel tracks but the goods train had rammed into the Jnaneswari’s coaches ahead of that part.

“There is a small crater near the tracks (of the Jnaneswari), but forensic experts would have to examine the spot to determine whether there had been a blast,” Singh said.

He added: “The People’s Committee has left behind posters saying it triggered this incident for the removal of the joint forces from here.”

Survivors and local people said more lives could have been saved had the rescue operations started earlier. Air force helicopters were deployed, for the first time in recent memory, to fly the injured to hospitals in Midnapore and Kharagpur around 6am.

Railway officials admitted that the affected coaches’ emergency widows were opened only around 4am —two hours and a half after the incident — to begin the process of pulling out survivors and bodies.

They said the Jnaneswari, which had left Howrah at 10.50 last night, had rolled out of Kharagpur station at 12.55am and met with tragedy 3km ahead of Sardiha. The goods train driver died in the collision but the Jnaneswari driver, B. Das, claims there was a blast.

Officials said that 15 minutes after the derailment, driver Das had called up Kharagpur station to report the disaster.

Within 20 minutes, Jhargram police superintendent Praveen Tripathi was at the spot with 50 CRPF jawans. Half an hour later, Kharagpur divisional railway manager Anil Handa arrived with doctors and emergency supplies.

The medical team began treating those in the compartments that had been derailed but not been hit by the goods train. The rescue operations began only around 4am, after generators had been set up to provide light and senior divisional commercial manager Manoj Kumar had arrived with rescue teams and volunteers.

As injured passengers were pulled out, doctors and nurses who had arrived from Jhargram and Kharagpur carried out emergency treatment.

Gas cutters, deployed to cut open grills, arrived even later. “If only the gas cutters had arrived earlier, perhaps my parents and my brother could have been saved,” said Altaf Ansari, 18, who had come to Calcutta from Nagpur to attend his aunt’s wedding.

As some questioned her decision to let trains run through Maoist areas at night, she said: “It’s a question of law and order and that is a state subject. What do I do?”

Railway officials contradicted Mamata’s claim that the Maoists would have known the goods train was approaching. “Unlike passenger trains, goods trains do not have fixed timings. It was just a coincidence that the goods train was passing just then,” an official said.

They added that trains did not exceed 75-80kmph while travelling through Maoist-affected areas, against a normal top speed of 110kmph.

This act of the Maoist cannot be condoned.
As long as they killed politicians, it was acceptable and I would say they were doing a commendable job in ridding mother earth of these vermins.
We accepted the killing of policemen sence they were protectors of the politicians.
We were shocked at the blowing up of the bus but anyhow accepted it since special polce officers were travelling in the bus.
But we will not accept the killing of the common man by derailing trains.
This is a dastardly act and is forcing us to the view that maybe Chidambaram was right. Maybe we will have to finish the Maoist.
I have to offer one suggestion.
If any person gives information to the police and the police act on it successfuly, the police should reward the person in cash and kind and remove him and his family from the area so that the Maoist cannot take revenge on him