Jamshedpur, May 20: In a shocking incident, CPI (Maoist) ultras launched an attack on the Dhanbad-Jhargram MEMU Passenger train (68020) at the Kokpara railway station, about 100 km from Jamshedpur, late on Thursday night.
The rebels assaulted the driver and guard of the train along with two other station authorities before fleeing with three wireless sets and firing in the air to spread fear amongst passengers.��
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The incident took place at around 10.30 p.m. when the passenger train arrived at Kokpara railway station (on Jharkhand-Bengal border), which falls under Kharagpur railway division of South Eastern Railway.
Sources informed that about 10 rebels who were waiting at the station took the driver N Nikat and the guard R J Singh into their custody thrashed them and snatched their walky-talky (wireless) sets and cell phones.
Later, the ultras also overpowered the assistant driver V K Singh and the station manager Ajay Singh snatching their cell phones and another wireless set. The rebels held them hostage for about half-an-hour before leaving them one by one. At the time of leaving the station the rebels opened fire in the air and took the shield of darkness of night to escape.
Movement of trains came to a halt between Jhargram and Tatanagar railway section as the news spread. Puri-Purushottam Expressed was halted at Ghatshila. Railway Police Force and CRPF personnel rushed to the spot and cordoned off the train.
The train remained halted at the Kokpara station till 1.30 a.m. A goods train was first made to move to check the condition of the tracks after which the Dhanbad-Jhargram Passenger train was allowed to run.
�As per the initial probe it seems to be work of rebels. There were no casualties and damage to railway property except for assault on the driver, guard, assistant driver and the station master. Security has been beefed up,”�noted a railway official.��
Talking to senior divisional commercial manager of Kharagpur division, Kuldeep Singh said that railway’s have begun an investigation into the incident.
As Kokpara falls under Ghatshila sub-division of East Singhbhum, a team of police officials comprising senior SP Anoop T Mathew and rural SP of East Singhbhum M Arshi left for Kokpara station late in the night after getting information.
DIG (Kolhan) Sambhu Thakur who went to Kokpara railway station this morning confirmed that the attack on the train was executed by CPI (Maoist) rebels. �As per initial probe it is the involvement of local�CPI (Maoist) rebels. They targeted the train to spread panic,” said the senior police officer.