Train Tragedy: Police
forced us to sit on train roof, allege survivors
Wednesday February 02, 2011 05:04:58 PM,
Asit Srivastava, IANS
|
Lucknow: Many youths
who travelled on board the Himgiri Express that turned fatal for
18 youths in Uttar Pradesh say they were either forced to sit on
the roof of the train by police or did so out of fear of security
personnel.
The victims were crushed to death by an overbridge at Shajahanpur,
60 km from Bareilly, as they sat on the top of Himgiri Express.
And many even say they were forced to clamber on to the roofs of
goods trains.
"Police and other security personnel charged at us, directing us
to leave Bareilly by any means. It was only because of the fear of
police and security personnel that hundreds of students climbed on
to Himgiri Express in Bareilly," Pramod Kumar, a resident of
Bihar, told IANS.
On Wednesday he was waiting at the Charbagh railway station here
to catch a train back home.
He was among around 100,000 aspirants from 11 states who had
converged for a recruitment drive of the paramilitary Indo-Tibetan
Border Police (ITBP) in Bareilly.
According to them, after they protested mismanagement of the
drive, police and security personnel directed them to leave
Bareilly at the earliest and drove them towards railway and bus
stations.
"The men in khaki bundled us into train coaches…When some of us
politely told them that the train was already packed with
passengers and that there was not a single seat left, the security
men directed us to climb on to the roof of the train," alleged
Kumar.
Shajahanpur is 180 km from Lucknow.
Significantly, it was not just the Himgiri Express. Candidates
claimed they were even forced to climb atop wagons of goods
trains.
"The security men were just not willing to listen us…We pleaded
with them, but many of the ITBP aspirants had to climb on the
Himgiri Express roof while others preferred sitting on top of
goods trains passing the area," Raju Kumar, who had come from
Bhadohi for the recruitment drive, told IANS.
Kumar and his two cousins who accompanied him for the drive were
among those who sat atop a goods train in their bid to leave
Bareilly.
Pankaj Yadav, another ITBP aspirant and a native of Sultanpur,
told IANS: "You tell me, what's our fault? People can say the
aspirants invited the accident. But tell me what would you have
done if you faced a similar situation…We climbed on the train to
avoid the wrath of security personnel."
Govind Kumar, another youth who hailed from Bihar, said: "I
managed to enter one of the coaches of Himgiri Express. When the
train started moving towards Lucknow from Shajahanpur, I noticed
several students coming down from the train one by one."
"At that time I thought the students were jumping from the roof.
Then suddenly I felt blood dropping on my clothes…That's when I
realised that an accident has occurred."
Candidates also alleged that rescue operations at the accident
site started very late, prompting angry youths to burn a coach.
"There was no one from the government to help us…We carried out
rescue operations by bringing down youths from the roof ourself.
Police and government railway police arrived more than one hour
after the accident took place," said Ramakant Devrat, an ITBP
aspirant from Azamgarh.
A top police official said he would look into the allegations.
Deputy Inspector General of Police Prakash D. told IANS, "The
foremost thing is that travelling on the train roof is not legal.
But this aspect had not been brought to my knowledge until now.
You ask the names of the policemen whom the students accuse of
forcing them to climb atop the train and I will take necessary
action."
|
Home |
Top of the Page |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Top
Stories |

March of
a million in Cairo to dislodge Mubarak
Tens of
thousands of protesters gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square Tuesday
and many more were streaming in to participate in the march of a
million as the movement
»
Anger in Egypt:
March of a million
people planned to oust Mubarak
Egypt
uprising echoes Philippines 25 years ago
|
|
Picture of the Day |
 |
Protesters have returned to the
streets of the Egyptian capital, Cairo, for the fifth consecutive
day, following violent overnight protests across the country
staged in defiance of a curfew.
(Photo: AFP) |
|
|
Most
Read |
Thousands
join rally against 'grave injustice' to Malegaon blast accused
Thousands of people in the textile
town February 01 came out strongly against, what the organizers
» |
Former
communications minister A. Raja, two aides arrested
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Wednesday arrested
former communications minister A. Raja and two of his aides R.K.
Chandolia and Siddharth Behuria in connection with the 2G spectrum
allocation scam, according to sources.
»
|
|
News Pick |
Maoism,
terrorism, fundamentalism serious challenges: PM
Naming
leftwing extremism, cross-border terrorism and religious
fundamentalism as serious challenges facing the country, Prime
Minister
» |
For
India's Muslims, Vastanvi has got it right
The controversy surrounding Maulana
Ghulam Mohammed Vastanvi, elected as vice chancellor of Darul
Uloom in Deoband, a leading school
»
New Deoband
Chief's love for Modi fails to get Muslim approval |
What's
bothering Bihar's entrepreneurs? Ask 'MBA Sabziwalla'
He is called the
"MBA sabziwalla" and wants to make Bihar India's vegetable hub.
Kaushlendra, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad
(IIM-A), is now working towards
» |
Pakistani
with two PhDs in four years
A Pakistani
national has startled his peers and countrymen by completing two
PhDs in just four years. Kashif Mehmood has done his PhDs in
Business Administration and Computer Science from two leading
universities in France.
»
|
Another
key accused in Malegaon blast held
The Maharashtra
Anti-Terrorist Squad has nabbed Praveen Mutalik, one of the key
absconder accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case, an
official said Tuesday. He was nabbed from Karnataka late Monday
and a hunt
» |
|
|
|