Rajdhani chugs along after blast leaves five dead

Guwahati, Dec 13 (UNI) Train services have resumed and the ill fated Rajdhani express had proceeded towards New Delhi even as the railway authorities stepped up vigilance following last night's bomb blast in the Rajdhani express near Diampur that left five persons dead and at least seven injured.

The train reached Guwahati shortly before noon after restarting their journey from Bokajan at 0600 hours this morning. The authorities informed that the damaged parcel van was removed and the train was allowed to go after a thorough check up.

At least five persons were killed when suspected Adivasi militants triggered a blast in the Delhi bound Rajdhani express at Sungajan near Dimapur.

The spokesman of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) headquarters at Maligaon , Mr Trikalagya Rabha said the deceased were identified as Satyaprakash Rai (45), Sudama Rai (45), Lakshman Rai (44), A K Sah (20) and D Prasad (19). The four seriously injured persons were admitted to the Dimapur Civil Hospital in Nagaland.

The toll may go up as injured were stated to be in critical condition.

All passengers were travelling bonafide in the parcel van of the Rajdhani Express from Dibrugarh to Guwahati, the NFR official said.

The Railway claims that parcel van in the train is utilised to accommodate passengers travelling between Dibrugarh and Guwahati.

According to police source, a programmable time device was placed there by some of the passengers who got down in Morioni. The police suspect the hand of Adivasi militant in the whole episode as they were active in Tinsukia-Dibrugarh region from where the train originated.

The blast did not damage the track and the driver managed to take the train to nearest Bokajan station. Condition of five other passengers are slated to very critical. They were shifted to Dimapur civil hospital.

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi condemned the incident.

Meanwhile the police had arrested the top brass of Adivasi militants and according to their confession, they had hatched plans to disrupt whole of Assam.

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