Phillaur, November 27
A bomb scare disrupted the rail traffic for almost one-and-a-half-hour today at the busy New Delhi-Amritsar twin tracks when a key man of the Railways reported a bomb-like thing lying on the tracks just after the Railway overbridge here.
A bomb-diffusing squad of the Army from Jalandhar cantonment later found that the bomb-like thing was just a battery of a wireless set used by the Army. Mystery, however, remained on how the battery had fallen or was placed on the tracks.
Sub-Inspector Ajit Singh, Government Railway Police (GRP), Ludhiana, said the battery could have fallen from trains carrying Army equipment and personnel that passed on the tracks here yesterday.
However, Raja Ram, the key man, who had spotted the “suspicious” thing at about 11 am, reported to the railway authorities that there was nothing on the track in the morning. The Delhi-Amritsar Shatabdi Express passed on the other track after the suspicious thing was spotted.
The bomb scare forced the railway authorities to stop
a number of trains at Ludhiana and Jalandhar railway stations till 12:30 pm when the
Army team gave all-clear signal. Earlier, Head Constable Gurbhej Singh of the GRP had lifted the bomb-like thing and placed it at a safe distance from the tracks.
Ajit Singh said there was no need to register a case. He said the police would provide the number and make of the battery to the Army to find out the regiment to which it was issued.
Senior police officials from Jalandhar police district reached the spot but later the investigation was handed over to the GRP as the incident took place in its jurisdiction.
