Railway employees launch stir protesting abduction of colleagues

Ranchi, Oct 18 (UNI) Railway employees today disrupted train movement as five of their colleagues, including the Station Master of McCluskieganj railway station, abducted on October 16, were yet to be traced even as senior officials rushed to call on Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren to apprise him of the situation.

Railway employees stopped movement of all passenger and goods trains betweeen Barkana and Grwah in Latehar district under South East Central railway division from this afternoon.

With the blockade continuing till this evening, DRM of Dhanbad Amrish Kumar Gupta rushed to the site and decided to meet the Chief Minister to inform him of the demand of the employees regarding safe relase of the abucted staff.

Train movement was affected at Tori, Latehar, Barwadih, Daltonganj and Gumla, officials said.

Meanwhile, police continued raids in the jungles of the hilly area near McCluskieganj railway station, dominated by the Anglo-Indian community.

Yesterday, in Ranchi, state police held a high-level departmental meeting, attended by officials of SP rank and above, to take stock of the situation.

Earlier, on October 16, about 12 armed miscreants ransacked the station, about 60 km from here.

However, a chowkidar, who was among the five initially kidnapped, was released later.

The abductors, after unleashing the terror, held station master Kamal Kishore and four others hostage and looted Rs 2,395 from the ticket counter before decamping.

The police were carrying out raids based on information received from the released chowkidar Bubaneshwar Mahto.

UNI PRS DPM DB1851