Centre to send team to Assam for investigation

New Delhi, Dec 13: Home Minister Shivraj Patil today condemned the blast in Rajdhani Express in Assam, which killed five people and injured 12 others, and assured all possible help to the state government in tackling such terror attacks.

Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta spoke to the Chief Secretary of Assam to get details of the incident which occurred at Sungajan near Dimapur early this morning. A central team would leave for Assam tomorrow to help the state government in the investigation of the blast, which the police suspects, was carried out by suspected Adivasis. The blast occurred in the first compartment after the engine, which was carrying railway staff and a number of passengers. A programmable timed device was planted there by some passengers, who alighted at Moioni.

The blast, which occurred at 0130 hrs, tore through a rake of the Delhi bound Rajdhani Express from Dibrugarh and badly damaged the parcel van. Since the blast did not damage the tracks, the driver managed to take the train to the nearest Bokajan station from where it later left for New Delhi.

Meanwhile, railway authorities have stepped up the security measures throughout the route to prevent any such recurrance.

UNI