Armed Naxals held the passengers of Tatanagar-Bilashpur passenger train hostage for an hour at Pachinda railway station under the South Eastern Railway’s (SER) Chakradharpur division late on Monday night, official sources said here on Tuesday.
Railway sources said around two-dozen rebels stormed the train at Pachinda at around 10 pm and asked the drivers to put the brake. They then moved from coach to coach to search each passenger. Later, they ordered the passengers to disembark at the next stoppage at Manoharpur after announcing that the entire train had been fitted with live bombs.
The ultras also pasted posters and banners in all coaches and raised slogans before leaving the train.
“The Naxals laid siege to the train for an hour. They, however, withdrew the siege after screening all the passengers. No passenger has been affected in the incident,” spokesman of the Bilashpur division of South East Central Railway Santosh Kumar told this newspaper.
The train was emptied of all passengers at Manoharpur railway station where bomb disposal squads were pressed into service to search all the bogies.
The passengers were accommodated in the Howrah-Kurla Express train amid tight security.
The empty Tatanagar-Bilashpur passenger train reached Raigarh railway station in Chhattisgarh, nine hours behind schedule at 2 pm on Tuesday.