President Patil condemns West Bengal Railway attack

Beijing, May 28 (ANI): Reacting to the derailment of 13 bogies of Mumbai bound Howrah-Kurla Lokmanya Tilak Gyaneshwari Super Deluxe Express, which was caused by a suspected Maoist bomb blast, President Pratibha Devisingh Patil, who is on six-day visit to China, has condemned the incident and offered her condolences to the bereaved families.

In a statement issued here, the President said she was shocked and grieved by the news, and offered her condolences to the family members of those killed and injured in the tragic incident, in which at least 20 people were killed and over 150 injured.

Thirteen bogies of the ill-fated express train were derailed near Jhargram in West Bengal’s West Midnapore District at 1.30 am on Friday following several which were suspected to have been triggered by the Maoists.

“We suspect Maoist hand behind the blast,” Vivek Sahai, Member (Traffic), Railway Board, said.

Sahai also said that the Indian Railway is in touch with the Indian Air Force to airlift seriously injured passengers.

In New Delhi, Union Home Secretary G K Pillai confirmed the death of 15 people, saying the toll might go up.

Relief and rescue work is continuing at war scale on the accident site. A relief train has left from Kharagpur with a team of 12 doctors and 20 paramedics. Army has also been called in for rescue operation and a chopper with a team of doctors and essential relief materials from Kalaikunda airbase has also been pressed into service.

Television images showed rescue workers using gas cutters to extricate trapped passengers and bodies from the mangled coaches of the express train.

Meanwhile, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee along with several senior officials, including Railway Board Chairman S S Khurana have reached the spot.

Banerjee has announced an ex-gratia of five lakh rupees for the next of kin of each of the dead and one lakh for the injured.

Railway traffic on the Howrah-Mumbai route has been badly affected due to the accident with several trains being cancelled or diverted via other rail routes.

The South Eastern Railway has cancelled the Howrah-Barbil Janshatabdi Express and Howrah-Jamshedpur Ispat Express.

The Hapa-Howrah express, Azad Hind express, Koraput- Howrah express, Ranchi Hatia express, Mumbai mail via Nagpur have been diverted. By Praful Kumar Singh (ANI)