Farmers Movement Archive

Jharkhand: Maoists’ blow up Kol-Mum rail line in West Singhbhum

JAMSHEDPUR: Suspected Maoists blew up a rail track on the busy Howrah-Mumbai main line in the wee hours of Monday. The blast occurred on the up line between Lotapahar and Sonua railway stations in Chakradharpur of West Singhbhum district. “Portions of the railway track was found 35 metres from the blast site,” the senior divisional commercial manager of Chakradharpur, Manish Kumar Pathak, said describing the intensity of the blast. The official informed that the blast occurred at 2:15am, following which train movement on the up and down line was suspended between Rourkela and Chakradharpur. In all, eight mail and express trains and several freight trains were controlled at different stations till the service resumed following restoration work at 9:35am. Howrah-Pune Express, Alleppey-Dhanbad express, Ahmedabad-Howrah express and Howrah-Ahmedabad express, among other trains, were controlled at Sonua, Chakradharpur, Sini and Rourkela stations, officials said. “Soon after the loco pilot of a goods train informed the station manager of Sonua about a heavy jerk on the up line, the safety and security team was rushed to the site and movement of the trains was suspended,” Pathak said. The restoration work was completed jointly by the district police, bomb detection and disposal squad, railway protection force and railway trackmen. Notably, Maoists had given a call for Bharat bandh on April 26 against the three controversial farm laws. The RPF and state police have started a probe into the incident. “A major rail accident was averted luckily. Had any passenger train passed on the sabotaged track, then it could have got derailed,” a railway official at the Tatanagar railway station said. Earlier, on Friday, Maoists had put up anti-establishment posters around the Lotapahar area calling for Bharat bandh. Notably, two passengers were killed and 30 passengers on board the Tata-Bilaspur passenger suffered injuries when the train was derailed following a Maoist-triggered blast on the Howrah-Mumbai line at Posaita railway station in Sonua in November 2009. In May 2012, Maoists had detained a Bilaspur-bound train and hung a can bomb from the engine of the train at Posaita railway station, terrifying the loco pilot and the passengers on board the train all through the hour-long journey from Posaita to Manoharpur in Chakradharpur. In the past one month, Maoist activities have reportedly increased in the Sonua, Toklo police station areas in Chakradharpur. Railway sources said that the timing of explosion suggests that Maoists had apparently targeted the Howrah-Pune Azad Hind Express that passes through Chakradharpur at 2am.

The Times of India

2021-04-27

Ranchi