Goods train derailed as Maoists sabotage railway track in Chhattisgarh

Kothagudem: A goods train derailed after the Maoists sabotaged a railway track in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh State. The goods train was on its way to Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh carrying iron ore from the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) mines at Kirandul in Dantewada district. Railway traffic on Kirandul-Visakhapatnam route came to standstill following […]

Kothagudem: A goods train derailed after the Maoists sabotaged a railway track in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh State. The goods train was on its way to Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh carrying iron ore from the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) mines at Kirandul in Dantewada district.

Railway traffic on Kirandul-Visakhapatnam route came to standstill following the incident that took place on Friday night. However there was no loss of life. RPF forces, railway workers and security forces left for the accident site on Saturday to get the railway line cleared, officials said.

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According to officials, naxals removed fish plates that connect the rails on the track on Bhansi- Kamalapur stretch. As a result over half a dozen wagons crashed into each other further damaging the railway track.

Maoists have fastened a banner to the engine of the derailed goods train and left pamphlets all over the place asking people in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Odisha to observe bandh on Saturday.

The bandh was called in memory of naxals killed in an encounter in Mardintola forests in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra on Nov 13 wherein as many as 26 Maoists, including a Maoist Central Committee member, Milind Teltumbde, were killed.

It might be noted that Maoists many times in the past sabotaged the railway track on Kirandul-Visakhapatnam route. The area where the incident took place on Friday was said to be very remote and inaccessible by road.

In March, 2014 Maoists damaged the railway track on the route that falls under Bhansi police station limits. Similar incident occurred in July, 2018 when President Ram Nath Kovind was on two-day visit to the State and in August in the same year naxals derailed a passenger train at Kamaloor station.

In April this year a passenger train with around 30 passengers onboard derailed as naxals damaged the railway track between Bhansi-Bacheli in the district, informed sources.

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