NEW DELHI — At least 65 people were killed and at least 200 injured on Friday after a high-speed train derailed in eastern India and was struck by a cargo train traveling on a nearby track.
Officials in West Bengal said they believe Maoist rebels sabotaged the tracks, causing the accident. Local television news channels showed footage of broken rail track, which appeared to have a foot-long section missing. Police told reporters they found Maoist leaflets and posters at the accident site.
“It appears to be a case of sabotage where a portion of the railway track was removed,” Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said in a statement. “Whether explosives were used is not yet clear,” he said.
The railways “are a soft target,” Mamata Bannerjee, the railway minister, said. The Maoists have attacked them in the past, “and, it seems, even now,” she said.
Police believe a bomb blast caused the incident, she told television news station NDTV. Samar Ghosh, the home secretary for West Bengal, said 65 people were confirmed dead and at least 200 injured.
For more than 40 years, Maoist rebels, also known as Naxalites, have been active in the resource-rich states of eastern and central India, where they claim to represent the rights of tribal groups, and broadcast plans to overthrow the government. Attempts to put mines and factories in these areas have been thwarted by violence, and roads, schools and bridges have been attacked.
The insurgency has gained in strength in recent years, with the Maoist presence spreading to 20 of India’s 28 states, and fatal strikes against police and government escalating.
On May 17, a passenger bus carrying civilians and police rolled over a homemade bomb in the state of Chhattisgarh, killing more than 20 people. In April, more than 70 military officers were ambushed by Maoists and killed in the same area.
Early Friday morning, thirteen cars of the Mumbai-bound passenger train the Gyaneshwari Express derailed in a rural area about 90 miles south of Kolkata. Several cars which spilled onto a nearby track were hit by a cargo train that passed minutes later. Many passengers were trapped for hours in overturned railway cars.
Railways in the area are on alert, Ms. Bannerjee said, after Maoists declared the last four days in May “black days,” when they are expected to commit violent acts.
India’s federal government says containing the Maoist presence is a priority. “Naxalism remains the biggest internal security challenge facing our country,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Monday. “The chief ministers understand that it is imperative to control Naxalism for the country’s growth,” he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/29/world/asia/29india.html?hp
0 comments:
Post a Comment