New Delhi, October 29: It was perhaps the most traumatic train journey for a passenger on board the Rajdhani train hijacked by the Maoists in West Bengal’s West Midnapore district on Tuesday.
Passenger Gautam Das found himself stuck at Bokaro, after a five hour hostage situation by the Maoitsts. It wasn’t the fear for his life but that of his mother that tore through his heart during the traumatic crisis, said Das.
Das was on his way to Chandigarh to make payments for his mother’s heart surgery.
“I need to deliver money fo my mother’s operation. If I am unable to do so things can get worse,” expressed Das to CNN-IBN.
But fortunately, after watching Gautam’s plight on CNN-IBN, the hospital carried out his mother’s operation successfully and even free of cost. But for several others on board the Delhi bound Rajdhani Express, it was a nightmare that knew no end.
A child who witnessed the turn of events as the train was forced to halt said, “Suddenly huge stones were hurled at the glass panes of the windows of the coaches. Number of people were injured in the process.”
The attackers reportedly forced their way through the broken windows. They clarified, say some passengers, that they had no intention of harming anyone.
“They said we have a grudge against the Government. Get out, we will burn the train,” recounted another passenger of the horror.
The Naxals took away the food and the bedding from the train, leaving passengers hungry and woefully short of amenities.
After five hours of being held up due to the attacking Maoists, the Rajdhani was stranded for another four hours till the machinery swung back into action. For the passengers, every second counted.
The agony of not knowing what will happen next added to their horror.
“There was no security with us, police got down at Kharagpur. Why did they make us the bait then? They (the Maoists) threatened us with swords, bows and arrows. What if someone died of a heart attack?” questioned a passenger on reaching Delhi.
The passengers on the ill-fated Rajdhani Express on Tuesday might have escaped with little injuries this time, but with the West Bengal government admitting to an understaffed police force this may not be the last violent train journey that the route has witnessed, fear many.
–Agencies