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ISI role suspected in Gaisal tragedy

The North-East Frontier Railway authorities suspect the Inter Services Intelligence's hand in one of the worst train accidents involving the Avadh-Assam Express and Brahmaputra Mail in Gaisal in West Bengal on August 2.

The entire top brass of the railway was unanimous that technically it was impossible for such an accident to take place especially in the Kisanganj-New Jalpaiguri section unless the situation was ''engineered by some external forces.''

''The preceding events involving the movements of the army and the background of the locality only reaffirm our suspicion that some external forces like the ISI must be behind the series of blunders that had taken place on the fateful night between Kishanganj and Gaisal,'' a top official of the railway, who does not want to be named, said.

An intelligence official of the Assam Police, who is interrogating the four ISI activists arrested recently and monitoring further arrests in Dhubri and Goalpara districts adjacent to north Bengal, also did not rule out the possibility of ISI involvement in the Gaisal tragedy.

The railway official said there were incidents of bomb explosions on rail tracks in north Bengal during heavy troop movements in connection with Operation Vijay.

''On June 21 two bombs were planted on the tracks between Phalakata and Gumanihat. While one of the bombs exploded, the other was defused. Another bomb was defused at Damchai the same day. The next day there was a massive explosion at the platform of the New Jalpaiguri station in which 11 people were killed. Besides, a bomb was defused at Rangapani. In all the cases the target was the army,'' the official said.

''In those days we ran 91army special trains for Operation Vijay,'' he remarked and added, ''But the question is how these agents can influence 15 railway employees from three stations. I hope the ongoing inquiry by the commissioner of railway safety will unearth the truth.''

He said the Avadh-Assam Express was put on the wrong track at the Kishanganj station and without the exit signal the train left the station under ''mysterious circumstances.''

Narrating the chain of mistakes the official said, ''The drivers of the Avadh-Assam Express proceeded towards Panjipara on the wrong track without getting the exit signal as well as the written order mandatory in such cases.''

''The train left Kishanganj on the wrong track but surprisingly it stopped for eleven minutes at the outer signal of Panjipara. It entered the Panjipara station without the mandatory reception signal. No train can enter a station without that signal. The train was running at full speed towards Gaisal, while it was supposed to move at a speed of 15 kilometres per hour on a wrong track,'' he continued.

The official said the drivers had been plying on that section for years and the driver of the Avadh-Assam Express could in no way miss the track running parallel to his left.

The key witness to the entire scene, the driver of the Avadh Assam Express is already dead and some of the 15 railway employees are still missing. Assistant station master of Kishanganj station Sachiprasad Chandra and cabinman-cum-pointman Allauddin, who actually put the Avadh Assam Express on the wrong track had been taken into custody. While Sachiprasad Chandra was arrested by police, Allauddin surrendered before the authorities.

UNI

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