New Delhi: Samastipur Railway Police have filed a case, against ‘unknown people’ who threw stones at the Swatantrata Senani Express in Bihar on Thursday night. The train was travelling from Jainagar to Delhi on the Muzaffarpur-Samastipur line when it was attacked, causing panic among the passengers and minor damage to the train.
Some passengers were injured but treated at a hospital in Samastipur, while the windows of the pantry car and coaches next to it were shattered. Stones were also thrown at sleeper coaches.
Police are trying to track down the attackers. It is unclear why stones were thrown, NDTV reported.
The incident occurred at Samastipur Railway Station’s outer signal; the train stopped briefly at the station, at around 8.45 pm, before leaving for Muzaffarpur. But as soon as it reached the outer signal the stone-pelting began. The attack delayed the train by 45 minutes.
There was an escort party of GRP, or Government Railway Police, personnel on board.
Last week, a major disaster involving this train on the Delhi-Jainagar route was narrowly averted after hitting a wooden block on the track near Rajdepur in Ghazipur early morning, around 3 am. The block damaged part of the engine, forcing the train to be halted as a precaution. A new engine had to be brought from Aurihar Railway Station. Reports indicate the train was delayed by nearly three hours.
There are also reports of stones being thrown at the Dibrugarh-New Delhi Rajdhani that was travelling on the same track, but ahead of the Swatantrata Senani Express. This has not been confirmed as yet, the report added.
