M A I N   N E W S

Train blast: probe ruled out
Death toll 5; several trains cancelled
Tribune News Service and agencies

JAMMU, Feb 11 — For 23 hours, rail traffic on the Jammu-Pathankot route remained suspended following a bomb blast in one of the coaches, which besides killing five passengers and injuring 20, damaged an over 1-km-long rail track late last evening.

The explosive device was planted between S-3 and S-4 coaches of the Calcutta-bound Sealdah Express. The blast took place within five minutes of the train leaving Vijaypur for Samba, derailing 10 coaches. Two of the coaches were totally smashed.

Fortyfive minutes before the blast, Pooja Express, coming from Jammu, had passed on the track without any incident and similar was the case with Himgiri and another goods train. However, the Sealdah Express was fully jam-packed when the blast took place. The police said that only 10 passengers had been admitted to hospital and the rest were discharged after first aid.

The Railway Minister, Ms Mamata Banerjee, visited the site of the incident today. She ruled out an inquiry, saying, “It is a train blast and not an accident.” She said that security arrangements would be further strengthened between Jammu and Samba which is considered as bomb-prone area.

She said that already the Union Home Ministry, the Ministry for Defence and Railways were holding a meeting in Delhi shortly to formulate a plan for ensuring safe train travel in the context of the growing threat from Pakistan-trained militants. She made it clear that in yesterday’s blast, Pakistani agents were responsible as the border was hardly 3 km from the scene of the blast.

Meanwhile, 400 workers and engineers have been pressed into service to repair the damaged rail track and remove the derailed coaches.

Senior police and rail officials were supervising the rescue and repair operations. They said that among those killed was a three-month-old baby and two women.

Official sources said that besides deploying additional forces for sanitising the entire 110-km-long Jammu-Pathankot rail track, shelter sheds for

security personnel and floodlights would be installed on the track to improve visibility.

During search operations around the site of the blast, the police recovered 13 kg of RDX.

Police sources said that initial investigations had revealed that militants had gone into hiding below a culvert when the railway police personnel were patrolling the area. Once they had gone a mile away, the militants may have planted the powerful explosive on the track.

Meanwhile, more than 10,000 passengers remained stranded on the Jammu railway station after three trains could not leave the station last night.

The police on Friday recovered two powerful explosive devices from the railway track at Devika bridge, near here.

The explosives were recovered from the railway track at the blast site, around 35 km from here between Vijaypur and Sambha, during a search operation, a senior police official said.

Suspected militants had kept three RDX IEDs under the track. While one of these was detonated by a remote control from nearby bushes, the other two failed to explode due to a technical fault, averting a major tragedy, said the official after visiting the spot.

The IEDs were planted just after a goods train had passed, official sources here said, adding explosives experts from the army were examining the devices.

The deceased were identified as S.B. Chaurasia, his wife and their child, Urmila Dixit and Gopi Chand, BSF constable.

NEW DELHI (UNI): Six trains were cancelled and two rescheduled between Jammu Tawi and other parts of the country following Thursday night’s explosion at the railway track near Samba.

The trains cancelled are 4646 Shalimar Express, 3152 Sealdah Express, 1078 Jhelum Express, 3074 Himgiri Express and 6688 Navyug Express, which were scheduled to leave Jammu Tawi on Thursday. The 4645 Shalimar Express, which was scheduled to leave New Delhi on Friday, has also been cancelled, a Northern Railway spokesman said.

The 4033 Jammu Tawi-Delhi Mail would terminate at Hira Nagar near Kathua and would originate from there. The 3151 Sealdah Express, scheduled to reach Jammu Tawi on Friday, would terminate at Pathankot and originate from there.

The government also sanctioned ex-gratia payment of Rs 15,000 to each of the five dead, Rs 5000 for each of those with grievous injuries and Rs 500 for those with simple injuries.

A railway medical van from Pathankot reached the scene of accident immediately and started the relief work, the spokesperson said.

4 dead, 25 hurt in explosion
Tribune News Service & agencies

JAMMU, Feb 11 — Suspected militants set off a powerful blast in a vegetable market here tonight killing four persons and wounding 25, a day after a bomb blast claimed five lives in the Sealdah Express.

The explosion took place in the makeshift market in the Canal road locality of Jammu city at around 7.35 p.m., official sources said.

Soon after the blast, a large number of people assembled at the scene and went on the rampage damaging five vehicles and clashed with the police which lobbed teargas shells and used batons to quell violence.

Initial reports said some unidentified person had parked a two-wheeler in a corner on the road. Within minutes the explosion took place rattling window panes in half a km area.

The police rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area to launch search operations. The wounded persons were admitted to the medical college where the condition of three injured was stated to be critical.

Meanwhile, the BSF apprehended nine youths in a downtown locality here last night. They were being taken for arms training across the border by a top militant of Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen.

A girl and a boy were killed while forces captured a militant and recovered some arms and ammunition in the Kashmir valley since last evening.