In one of the worst hits by Maoists in the recent times, 73 people were killed, 120 injured and coaches of the superfast train derailed in West Bengal on Friday night at 1.15 a.m. when a goods train approaching from the other end ran in to the six coaches of the derailed train. Several passengers were trapped in the smashed coaches till late Friday evening. Officials said the death toll would likely to rise. Rescue workers were struggling with gas cutters to cut the twisted heap of metals. The incident took place near Sardhia, between Kharagpur and Tatanagar section between 1.15 am and 1.20 am on Friday. The site is 130 km away from Howarh. Train services on the stretch have been suspended from 10pm to 5am for a short while.
Railway Minister Mamta Banerjee said it happened due to a bomb blast on the track but the police said it seemed to be an act of sabotage as the fish plates had been removed, the tracks had a sixteen inch break and appeared to be cut.
This is the second incident happened recently, before that the Naxals killed 76 soldiers in Dantewada. We live in an independent country where the Govt. is formed through general elections and everybody has a right to cast his vote. The winning party will rule over the country. If a group of people are not satisfied with the working of the Govt., these people should expose the wrong policies and imperfect functioning of the Govt. before the public. This is the correct approach to show your disapproval against the working of the Govt. To damage the public property and killing the innocent people is a crude method to show annoyance. This method was appropriate when India was ruled by the British but time has changed. The British have left our country and now the public properties indirectly or directly are ours. Even during the freedom movement time, many groups of freedom fighters were against the violence. Mahatma Gandhi’s name is one who was against violence even if it was for freedom movement.
It may be correct that the Govt. is not delivering its duty properly. But even then these factions should not use violence as a tool to challenge the Govt.