65 killed as Maoist attack - Mumbai-bound Gyaneshwari Express derailed –

65 killed as Maoist attack - Mumbai-bound Gyaneshwari Express derailed –
Reality Views by sm
Friday, May 28, 2010

This is the second Maoist attack on civilians this month.
At least sixty five passengers were killed and 200 injured when 13 coaches of Mumbai-bound Gyaneshwari Express derailed in West Midnapore district at 1.30 am after after Maoists sabotaged the train tracks. Five of these coaches were also hit by a speeding goods train.



The incident occurred at 1:30 am when the train was running between Khemasoli and Sardiya stations, about 135 km from Kolkata.
Angry passengers said the first signs of relief came only around 5 am, three-and-a-half hours after the incident.
The Maoist-backed People's Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA) has claimed responsibility for the derailment of the train.

"The PCAPA have left two posters near the rail tracks clearly owning responsibility for the derailment of the Kurla-bound Gyaneswari Express," IGP (Law and Order) S Karpurakayastha said.

The posters read, "We earlier demanded withdrawal of the joint security forces from Jangalmahal (West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia) and end of CPM atrocities, but those demands were not met."

Another poster demanded immediate withdrawal of the joint forces from the area. Police have seized both posters.

Relief officials used gas cutters to extricate trapped passengers and bodies from the mangled remains of the affected coaches.

While Home Minister P Chidambaram has said that train derailment in West Bengal appears to be a case of sabotage, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee says bomb blasts as part of a “calculated attack” caused the Gyaneshwari Express to first derail and then get hit by a goods train.
Five of the 13 derailed coaches fell on an adjacent track and were hit by a goods train coming from the opposite direction
In Calcutta Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Surojit Karpurokayastha said that according to preliminary investigation, fish plates were found removed at the derailment site.

Indian Air Force helicopters were pressed into service at the accident spot to airlift some of the injured to the hospitals.
Nine of the coaches which were not damaged in the blast took the injured and the other passengers to Kharagpur where they were admitted to hospital.
A relief train left Kharagpur with a team of 12 doctors and 20 paramedics as also two doctors from the Kalaikunda airbase, the officials said.

The Prime Minister announced Rs two lakh to the next of the kin of the deceased and Rs 50,000 for the injured.
Railway Minister Banerjee announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh for the next of kin of each of the dead and Rs 1 lakh for the injured.

Helplines have been set up at
Kharagpur - (03222) 255751 and 255735,
Howrah -- (033) 26382217, besides a toll free number 10722.
Helplines have also been set up at Tatanagar (0657) 2290324, 2290074, 2290382,
at Rourkela (0661) 2511155,
Chakradharpur (06587) 238072 and Jharsuguda (06445) 270977.

Following the mishap, a number of trains in the region have been cancelled and some have been diverted as well.




List of cancelled trains:

Howrah-Barbil Jan Shatabdi

Howrah-Titlagarh Express

Tata Nagar-Howrah express

Titlagarh Howrah Express

List of diverted trains:

Puri-Howrah-via KGP,MDN

Puri-New Delhi- via KGP, MDN

Howrah-Ahmedabad- via KGP, MDN

Porbander-Howrah-Via Tata, CNI

Pune-Howrah-Vias Tata, CNI

CSTM-Howrah

Here is the first list of injured released by the Indian Railways.


List of injured admitted in Khargpur Railway Hospital:

Imtiaz Ali Sheikh - 34 (M)

Saurabh Bhadra - 20 (M)

Sushmita Guha - 42 (F)

Subhashish Guha - 40 (M)

Mohad Amin - 58 (M)

Hamida Julia Biswas - 18 (F)

Shantanu Mitra - 36 (M)

Samil Bhai Turkia - 65 (M)

Juhi Sadhu Khan - 19 (F)

Srikant Nag - 24 (M)

Shankar Manka - 25 (M)

Vandana Dutta - 45 (F)

Mala Sen - 50 (F)

Sunil Saha - 53 (M)

Aftab Hussain Mondal - 16 (M)

Meira Devi Tibriwal - 60 (F)

Manisha Ghari - age not given

S K Manirul - 20 (M)

Shreya Sen - 22 (F)

Salma Sheikh - age not given (F)

Rukasana Sheikh- age not given (F)

Lal Mohan Sadhu Khan - 50 (M)

Tapat Sadhu Khan - age not given (M)

Hasibul Rehman - age not given (M)

Nirday Kumar - age not given (M)

Moni Gupta - age not given (F)

Sangeeta Kumari - age not given (F)

Beena Gupta - age not given (F)

Raju Sheikh - age not given (M)

Swapan Haldar - age not given (M)

Subhash Bhattacharjee - age not given (M)

Anil Kumar Kamakar - age not given (M)

Uma Gupta - age not given (F)

Lata Seth - age not given (F)

Mahabir - age not given (M)

Alla Rakha - age not given (M)

N C Roy - age not given (M)

Megha Gupta - age not given (F)

Neeraj Nikhil Roy - age not given (M)

Matuf Mandal - age not given (M)

Aashit Sheikh - age not given (M)

Hisbul Rehman - age not given (M)

One girl child (name not known) - 4

Boy child (name not known) - 2

One girl child (name not known) - 4

Boy child (name not known) - 2

Girl child (name not known) - 3