One killed, six hurt in Assam rail track blast

GUWAHATI - At least one person was killed and six wounded, two of them critically, in a powerful explosion on a railway track Thursday that ripped apart a coach of a passenger train in India’s restive northeastern state of Assam, officials said.

A police spokesperson said the blast took place at 2.15 a.m. at Babubil in Kokrajhar district, about 270 km west of Assam’s main city of Guwahati.

“The Garib Rath Express from Guwahati to Kolkata was at Babubil when the blast took place derailing a coach and leading to the casualties,” S. Hajong, chief spokesperson of the Northeast Frontier Railways, told IANS.

The injured were shifted to local hospitals, while relief trains have reached the blast site.

“It would take some time to restore rail links between Assam and rest of India and hence most incoming and outgoing trains were rescheduled for the time being,” the railway official said.

Police blamed the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) for the blast.

“The NDFB triggered the blast by planting the explosive on the track minutes before the train was to pass the area,” a senior police official said.

The train blast took place even as the Assam government Wednesday evening sounded a massive security alert with

intelligence inputs of serial explosions by the NDFB.

The railways Wednesday night announced cancellation or suspension of at least six long distance passenger trains due to the threat.

A police spokesperson said radio intercepts of the NDFB revealed a massive plan to trigger a wave of blasts across Assam, mainly targeting trains, bridges, and other vital installations, besides security forces and public places.

Earlier on Wednesday, trains were detained with railway police carrying out checking of tracks with information of bombs being planted.