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Maoists damage railway track in Orissa, goods train derails
New Delhi, February 8, 2010
Suspected Maoists exploded a bomb on a railway track near Rourkela in Orissa while a goods train was passing in the early hours of today, causing one of the wagons of the train to derail and disrupting train services on the busy Howrah-Mumbai route for several hours. South Eastern Railway spokesman Soumitra Majumdar told NetIndian over the telephone that the explosion took place around 0045 hours, damaging a portion of the track between Bhalulata and Jareikala stations on the down line (Mumbai-Howrah). He said no one was injured in the incident, but one wagon of the train moving got derailed. The Railway authorities promptly stopped all trains on the up (Howrah-Mumbai) and down lines. The state police was informed of the incident and a bomb squad arrived at the spot by 0530 hours. They discovered a live bomb on the up line, which was defused. The police gave security clearance for the up line by 0730 hours, after which the railway authorities first ran a goods train on the section before resuming normal services on the line by 0755 hours. The derailed goods wagon was meanwhile re-railed and the stalled goods train was moved away after which the damaged track was repaired and normal traffic on the down line was restored by 0940 hours, Mr Majumdar added. The Maoists have called for a 72-hour "bandh" from yesterday in Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa and Chhattisgarh to protest against the Centre's proposed offensive against them. NNN
