Cement blocks, gas cylinders, tyre rims and huge pebbles - since January, there have been over 15 instances when locopilots detected presence of these potential hazards on tracks. Spotting them in time and applying emergency brakes have saved hundreds of lives and averted catastrophic destructions, but the rise in such incidents have become of a cause of serious concern.
Only 10 days ago, Farhatullah Ghori, the mastermind of the 2002 Akshardham temple attack and Bengaluru's Rameshwaram Cafe blast, sent a message to terror sleeper cells in India to carry out attacks on trains, petroleum pipelines and Hindu leaders. In the wake of Ghori's call, the threat has become more serious.
"The recent railway accidents have been termed ‘serious in nature’ but there is no visible terror angle in recent derailments," CNN-News18 quoted its sources from Indian Railways.
“Threat to the railways is the biggest but we have managed successfully. After the Farhatullah Ghori threat, we are reporting all incidents of railway accidents and sabotage,” the sources said.
Attempts to derail trains point to criminal intent of miscreants, railway ministry officials were quoted in a TOI report. However, no possible terror angle has been established so far.
The Railways have seen 7% rise in accidents in the last one year but they are mostly attributed to "deliberate attempts by people to have fun". However, four visible cases came into picture where a possible terror angle was involved out of 126 cases, the report said.
In the last one week only, three attempts to derail trains and two instances of stone pelting on trains have been recorded:
On September 10, a goods train hit two cement blocks - weighing around 70 kg each - on tracks of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor in the Ajmer district of Rajasthan by putting.
On September 8, Bhiwani-Prayagraj Kalindi Express hit a cooking cylinder kept on the tracks in Kanpur but there was no serious damage as the pilot applied emergency brakes.
On September 5, a major accident was averted as pilot applied brakes in time near Kurduwadi station in Solapur when a fouling mark slab was deliberately placed on the tracks near a signal point.
On August 23, Sabarmati-Jodhpur Vande Bharat hit a stone placed on track. Three days before that, a goods train collided with a motorbike rim on the Dedicated Freight Corridor.
On August 18, a passenger train hit half a dozen iron rods placed on tracks in Jabalpur.
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