Jammu, August 10
The local railway station needs adequate security if revelations of Lance Naik Suresh Kumar, one among a few living witness to the militant strike which killed 13 passengers and wounded 30 others are an indication.
Suresh Kumar who hails from Himachal and is from JAK Rifles, was waiting for the Jhelum Express to board it along with one JCO and five soldiers. Around 8.20 p.m. the Ahmedabad-Jammu Express stopped at the railway station and passengers started detraining. After about 10 minutes the lights went off the train was to proceed to the yard.
Suddenly bullets rained from assault rifles. “I was hit and two of my colleagues were also injured” he said adding “I spotted the militant and opened fire from my SLR.” He said “I fired 13 rounds and the militant was hit and wounded.
When he saw that the militants was fitting another magazine in the assault rifle “I jumped on him, despite being injured, and snatched the AK-Rifle and opened the burst killing him on the spot.”
Suresh Kumar saw the other militant fleeing towards the second gate of the Railway station. “I tried to run after him but could not keep pace because of my injuries, he said adding that “I took the Rifle and wanted to shoot him but on second thought I did not fire as it would have resulted in the killing of several passengers because the militant had mingled with the civilians.”
He said had there been proper security arrangements and a proper and well fortified exit point the rebel would have been caught.
He said had he not fired on the militants the two rebels would have emptied 16 magazines they carried and in the process more “700 people would have been killed.”
He confirmed reports that a small police and CRPF force, deployed on the Railway platform, was nowhere to be seen when the firing started as most of them ran for life along with the passengers. From his account and those given by some wounded passengers it is evident that while the two militants were trained in carrying out the operation of this type, the security forces on duty were not trained to silence the gunners.
As far as the security cover in and around Jammu Railway station is concerned it is a free area for anyone. The long platform is being used by some morning and evening walkers. Random checking is carried out at the entry and when there are more than three entrances only one has proper security bandobast.
On the next morning of the shoot-out couple of police with lathis, were seen manning the barrier outside the station. People were seen walking in and out of the platform and a couple of policemen on duty at the main entrance made no attempt at frisking the visitors.
Since there is no authority to check purchase of platform tickets the station invariably sees several hundreds visitors to the platforms without tickets. This way the two platforms and lounge outside the enquiry remain jam-packed round the clock.
Besides this, the department of crime and Railway had submitted several plans to the Railway Ministry for strengthening the security cover. Among the recommendations was fencing of the entire station from all corners, construction of shelter sheds for the security forces between Jammu and Samba, provision of flood lights on the rail track between Jammu and Pathankot and deployment of additional forces on the station and on the 45 km track upto Samba.
Except for the installation of close TV circuit and X-ray machines there has been no further improvement. The most important recommendations made by the Crime and Railways, according to a senior police officer, was to shift the main oil depot of the Indian Oil. The Depot is close to platform three and militants had launched a rocket attack three years ago but it had missed the target.
According to the police officer, if the Oil Depot, from where oil is supplied in tankers to all parts of Jammu and Kashmir including Ladakh, is hit by rockets the entire Jammu city would be in trouble allowing several thousand people to get “roasted.”
There has been no response from the Central Government. The state authorities have engaged over 400 Exservicemen for guarding the Jammu - Samba rail track but they needed better facilities for carrying out the assigned task.
It has been seen that militants infiltrate into Jammu and after carrying out armed strike escape back to Pakistan when the border is less than seven kms away from the rail track in Samba. This problem too needed to be tackled.
