Two passenger trains narrowly escaped fatal accidents despite two separate sabotage attempts by miscreants in two separate places near Birampur railway station in Dinajpur district on Tuesday night.
The saboteurs removed railway sleepers and set the railway tracks on fire as part of their ill-attempts to cause fatal accidents.
The attempts were made hours after a Dhaka bound train was set on fire in the capital’s Tejgaon area leaving three compartments burnt and at least four people, including a mother and her child dead.
Not only that, the miscreants carried out at least 35 terror attacks on the railway sector alongside around 300 arson attacks on different vehicles, including bus, truck and even ambulance since October 28, when the BNP and its allies launched a continuous anti-government movement to foil the 12th Jatiya Sangsad election.
According to witnesses, the Khulna bound ‘Rupsha Express’ train from Chilahati could escape an accident as the train driver and his assistant noticed it and were able to stop the train in time at around 11:00 pm on Tuesday. Bangladesh Railways Chief Commercial Manager (West) Sujit Kumar Biswas said, saboteurs removed the sleepers--components that maintain the correct space of the gauges between rail tracks--from the outer rail line at Birampur Rail Station around 11:00 pm on Tuesday. But the train driver and his assistant noticed the issue and were able to stop the train in time.
"Sleepers were removed from the track shortly before the departure of the Chilahati express train. Our loco-master and assistant loco-master noticed the incident and stopped the train. As a result, no accident occurred", he said.
On information, experts of the railway rushed to the spot and cleared the line for train movement smoothly.
Meanwhile, law enforcers foiled another attempt of sabotage on the railway at another place in Birampur upazila. The miscreants attempted to set fire to railway tracks at around 9:00 pm on Tuesday night.
The railway authorities believed that the same group of miscreants took both the attempts.
They said that on noticing smoke, police and Ansar members rushed to the spot and extinguished the blaze.
They also managed to stop the Simanta Express, which was scheduled to go through the area, a few yards away.
Police on Wednesday arrested a local leader of BNP from Birampur upazila in connection with the attempt of setting fire to the rail track.
The arrestee was identified as Haidar Ali, a joint secretary of Birampur unit of BNP.
Subrata Kumar, officer-in-charge of Birampur police station, said police arrested Haider from the upazila in the morning.
Earlier, a case was filed against eight identified people and several unidentified people in connection with the attempt to set fire to a rail track Tuesday night.
Bangladesh has seen at least 35 incidents of rail sabotage amid the series of strikes and blockades organised by the BNP and like-minded parties. At least five people have lost their lives and many others sustained injuries in these incidents. Seven railway coaches were gutted by fire, and eight more coaches and an engine were damaged.
The railway has also reported several incidents of railway lines being set on fire, the removal of other rail track components, and the detonation of improvised explosives in different parts of the country.
