Rebels rain bullets on train CRPF jawan killed, 17 hurt

Nagaon, April 11 : A CRPF constable was killed and 17 persons were injured when suspected militants of the Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel Gorlosa) sprayed the Badarpur-Lumding Barak Express with bullets in Assam’s North Cachar Hills district today. Thaiso Langthasa, a 32-year-old passenger, said, “The train was moving slowly as it was climbing. The attackers fired from either side of the track as soon as the engine reached their level. They also lobbed a grenade. Five coaches were hit.” The grenade exploded after hitting the window of a coach, Thaiso, who was travelling from Haflong to Langting, said. The attack took place near Wadrengdisha between Haflong and Maibong railway stations on the metre gauge track around 2.15pm. The site is 153km from Badarpur railway junction to the south and 75km from Lumding and 30km from the district headquarters of Haflong to the north. Maibong civil sub-divisional officer Ghana Kanta Pegu said the train continued its journey despite the firing and reached Maibong station. The injured passengers were taken off the train there. “A special train on medical duty reached Maibong this evening. We are shifting all the seriously injured to Lumding and Haflong,” Pegu added. The rest are being treated at the Maibong community health centre. Amarjeet Singha, 21, a constable of the 5th Assam Police Battalion, said from the Maibong health centre, where he was undergoing treatment before being shifted to Lumding, “I was in the coach for security personnel next to the engine. I saw at least five militants firing at us from sophisticated weapons...bullets were raining on us. “Two bullets hit me, one on my right arm and another on the left leg,” he said, ruing that he did not have a firearm as he was returning after work. The other security personnel in the coach retaliated, he added. Singha, who was on his way to Lumding from Haflong, hails from Jalukbari in Guwahati and had joined the battalion two years ago. The deceased constable, identified as A.K. Tiwari of the 144 CRPF, was also travelling in this coach. Three persons — RPSF constable Dhanesh Buragohain, Rangthang Haflongbar of Semkhor and an unidentified middle-aged man — were seriously injured in the attack. The unidentified person suffered serious burn injuries as a kerosene stove, being carried in one of the coaches, burst after being hit by a bullet. “He was sitting close to the stove,” a senior doctor at Maibong CHC, Tilok Deka, said. The two civilians have been shifted to Haflong while a jawan of the Railway Protection Security Force has been shifted to Lumding, Deka said. Two women and two children were also among the injured, he added.  Another passenger, Dipti Hojai of Lumding, who suffered splinter injuries and was also undergoing treatment at the Maibong CHC, said, “We were peeping out to see from where the firing was coming. At that moment a grenade was hurled and it hit the iron grill of the window of our coach. I can’t remember anything after that.” NC Hills district superintendent of police Mridulananda Sarma said the DHD (J) are suspected to have launched the attack, but investigations are on to ascertain the facts. He and deputy commissioner S. Jagannathan visited the spot. An NF Railway spokesperson said discussions were on to decide whether to run trains in the section from tomorrow. Train services in the district have often been disrupted because of militant attacks. The railway still does not run passenger trains in this section at night.