---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Ashok S <ashokan....@gmail.com> Date: 31 May 2010 12:34 Subject: Fwd: ‘We’re sorry... Target was goods train’///MHA cautious on derailment, sticks to sabotage theory To:
‘We’re sorry... Target was goods train’ Madhuparna Das,Subrata Nagchoudhury, Posted: May 31, 2010 at 0911 hrs IST Sardiha Hours before he was named as the prime suspect in the Jnaneswari train disaster, Bapi Mahato told The Indian Express that he was “sorry” for what had happened, and that the targeting of the passenger train was a “mistake”. Speaking to the Express inside the Romroma forests, 8 km from the accident site, after much persuasion, Mahato, a key leader of the PCAPA, said: “We are sorry. We never wanted these innocent civilians to die. Trust me, we targeted the goods train. But somehow, we were fed wrong information that the goods train would cross through this track and we removed pandrol clips from a long stretch. We did not want to harm civilians. There must have been some miscalculation.” However, when the Express contacted him again after he had been named the “mastermind” of Thursday night’s carnage by Bengal DGP Bhupinder Singh and a manhunt launched for him, Mahato denied all role in the attack. Speaking over the cellphone, he said: “We are being framed by the CPM and police. I investigated and came to know that our cadres were not involved in the sabotage. CPM goons, including Arjun Mahato and Lolit Sahoo of Pathuri and Kotushol, are the main persons behind the incident... Everybody knows that a CPM minister held a meeting in Barjudi Primary school just the night before the incident happened.” However, based on intercepts of calls among Maoist activists, police and investigating agencies believe that the Jhargram CPI (Maoist) squad, including 12 cadres led by a 15-year-old boy named Kanu, and the local unit of the PCAPA (People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities) removed the pandrol clips and were helped by villagers. The calls also indicate that some gangmen of the Railways were “engaged” forcibly to remove the clips from both the Up and Down tracks. A senior CID official said they had zeroed in on three of the gangmen. Raj Kanojia, ADG, CID, who visited the accident site today, said there was no evidence of a blast. “It was sabotage and it was done by Maoists. There is no doubt about it,” he said. Call intercepts also reveal that a quarrel has broken out between senior leaders over the attack. “One group is blaming another... A blame game has started within the CPI (Maoist) and the PCAPA,” a senior police official said. Bapi Mahato leads the PCAPA in the Guimara-Lalgeria panchayat area under Jhargram, controlling a vast area covering over 20 villages and railway stations like Khemashuli, Sardiha, Banstala and Jhargram. Express reporters could enter villages around the accident site only with his sanction. The road leading to Romroma forests and the villages surrounding it were blocked with felled trees. Initially, Mahato was reluctant to surface from his forest hideout and sent emissaries. He said he wasn’t feeling well and hadn’t slept properly because of raids by security forces. It was on persistent request that he agreed to meet. While regretting the civilian deaths at the meeting with Express, Mahato justified the Maoist anger. “Whatever we do, we do with the sanction of local villagers. Our villagers are being tortured mercilessly by security forces and in the wee hours of Thursday, several teams of security forces came along with ‘Harmads’ (armed goons backed by the CPM) into villages and picked up people indiscriminately. So they were seething with anger... you would understand,” he said. Asked about his links with Maoists, Mahato evaded a straight answer. “We stay out of our homes for fear of security forces, and to stay in the jungles you need arms. There are animals, elephants and one has to have something to defend himself. The moment we pick up arms, we are branded Maoists,” he defended. He was more keen to discuss issues concerning the villagers. He showed an irrigation canal which, he said, could bring smiles to 16 villages if maintained properly. “Just Rs 4 lakh is needed from the government to repair the 32 gates. But those are lying in the same condition since 1971,” said Mahato. With the police on the hunt for him, the PCAPA leader said over the phone that he wasn’t worried. “Nobody can prove my involvement. I am only concerned and tense about my high school results which will be out in a couple of days,” Mahato said. A student of Manikpara High School, this is his third attempt to pass high school. Aged 25, he joined the PCAPA a year and a half ago and was assigned the task of leading the Anchal Committee after the CPI (Maoist) Central Committee expelled three leaders in the area for the October 2009 detainment of Rajdhani Express. The next month, at a meeting in Romroma forests, attended by senior leaders including Bikash, Mahato was made the leader of the PCAPA. Mahato’s father Khudiram was reportedly arrested in 1994 when Bapi was just 10. “I wanted to grow up normally. But one day some miscreants hurled a bomb at a neighbour’s house. My father was unnecessarily picked up and jailed for several years.” In 2008, Mahato said, he applied for a CRPF constable’s job. “I cleared, but I was asked to deposit a huge sum for the job. I did not have the money.” http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Were-sorry-Target-was-goods-train/627088/ ======================================= MHA cautious on derailment, sticks to sabotage theory TNN, May 29, 2010, 03.30am IST NEW DELHI: With no evidence of an explosion so far, the Centre claimed that West Midnapore train derailment was an act of sabotage. Within hours of the tragedy, home minister P Chidambaram said the derailment appeared to be an act of sabotage but it was not yet clear whether explosives were used to blast the tracks. "It appears to be a case of sabotage where a portion of the railway track was removed. Whether explosives were used is not yet clear," he said in a statement. According to reports, the Maoist backed People's Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA) has taken responsibility for the incident. Chidambaram said the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) had deployed four teams to assist rail authorities in relief operations. "A total of 132 personnel with necessary equipment have reached the site of the tragedy and are assisting the state government and railway authorities," he said. The minister said he was deeply saddened by the tragedy that struck the Howrah-Kurla Gyaneshwari Express in West Midnapore district. Chidambaram said every effort was being made to rush the injured to hospital for treatment and helicopters had been pressed into service for the purpose. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/MHA-cautious-on-derailment-sticks-to-sabotage-theory/articleshow/5987061.cms ============== PCPA denies hand in West Bengal train derailment, alleges CPM role PTI, May 30, 2010, 06.09pm IST MIDNAPORE: Amidst allegations that the People's Committee against Police Atrocities played a role in Jnaneswari Express derailment, the Maoist-backed organisation on Sunday denied any involvement in the incident and charged the CPM with "hatching the plot". "We have no intention to target trains and we condemn and mourn such a colossal loss of civilian lives," PCPA convener, Asit Mahato said and charged the CPM "with hatching the plot". A day after the state police claimed to have identified two persons of the PCPA recently released on bail having a hand in the derailment of the train's 13 coaches, Mahato said, "politically motivated statements are being issued to separate us from the masses." "We will take out a procession in the Jangalmahal to mourn the dead in the train disaster. We strongly condemn such acts which take lives of common, innocent men and we express deep shock," Mahato said. Countering police's claim, the PCPA leader named four CPM district and local leaders and alleged "under their leadership, the CPM has opened camps in the last 15 days at Burjoli, Kolla, Patri and Dahimara villages close to Sardiha where the express train derailed." The mishap that occurred in the wee hours on Friday has claimed 148 lives so far. Mahato further alleged the four CPM leaders "conspired to create panic by triggering a train mishap and the objective is to malign us and take us away from the people in Jangalmahal by creating a bad name for us." The PCPA leader said "CPM had plans to politically isolate railway minister Mamata Banerjee so that she is forced to resign under directive of the UPA government after the train mishap". "We strongly protest against such a conspiracy by the CPM which led to such a heinous crime," Mahato said. The Railway minister had said on Sunday that there was "a political conspiracy" in the derailment of the Jnaneswari Express two days ahead of the civic polls in the state. "Whoever did it... it was a political conspiracy. The accident has happened two days before the (civic) election. One may be politically against us, but I feel bad the way the incident was engineered to fulfil one's political interests", Banerjee had said. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/PCPA-denies-hand-in-West-Bengal-train-derailment-alleges-CPM-role/articleshow/5991365.cms =================== Train toll 148, all bodies are found, PCPA claims no role May 31st, 2010 The toll in Saturday’s derailment of the Mumbai-bound Gyaneswari Express rose to over 148 on Sunday as more bodies were extricated from the wreckage of the mangled coaches. “All bodies from the spot have been recovered. Train services along the route resumed at 2.50 am Sunday morning,” South Eastern Railway’s Kharagpur divisional railway manager Anil Handa said. District magistrate N.S. Nigam and hospital sources put the toll at 148.All trains plying in the Sardiha and Khemasuli route in West Midnapore district will now have a speed limit of 15 kmph, Mr Handa said.Around 145 passengers are being treated in various hospitals in Midnapore, Kharagpur and Kolkata, he added. The Maoist-backed People’s Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA), which was alleged to have been responsible for the derailment, on Sunday disowned any hand in it and accused the CPI(M) of “hatching the plot”.Said PCPA convenor Asit Mahato: “We have no intention to target trains, and we condemn and mourn such a colossal loss of civilian lives.” A six-member state CID team headed by additional DGP Raj Kanojia, accompanied by forensic experts, visited the derailment site on Sunday. —PTI http://www.asianage.com/india/train-toll-148-all-bodies-are-found-pcpa-claims-no-role-549 ===================================== IANS Different UPA voices on cause of rail accident 2010-05-28 23:30:00 Ministers of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Friday spoke in different voices on the cause of the rail accident in West Midnapore district of West Bengal that killed at least 76 people. While Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee said the blast was caused by a blast, Home Minister P. Chidambaram said he suspected sabotage behind the derailment of the Mumbai-bound train. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who belongs to West Bengal, said he did not know the reason of the accident and would not comment on it. Banerjee, who visited the site of accident in Jhargram, told reporters that the mishap occurred due to a bomb blast which blew up a portion of the tracks. The minister said the timing of the blast coincided with the arrival of a speeding freight train, which tore into three of the coaches of the derailed Gyaneshwari Express. 'It is the sheer timing. That's the reason the tragedy took a turn for the worst,' the railway minister said. Chidambaram said he suspected sabotage behind the derailment of the train though it was unclear whether explosives were used. 'It appears to be a case of sabotage where a portion of the railway track was removed. Whether explosives were used is not yet clear,' the minister said in a statement. The statement, however, did not directly blame Maoist guerrillas for the accident. Mukherjee told reporters 'I don't exactly know the reason' for the train accident and that he was not in a position to say if it was caused by a blast or sabotage. http://sify.com/news/Different-UPA-voices-on-cause-of-rail-accident-news-National-kf2x4bhgbjc.html ================= Top UPA Ministers divided? NDTV Correspondent, Friday May 28, 2010, New Delhi Barely a week after Prime Minister asked his Ministers not to air their difference of opinion in the public, the top UPA Ministers have again been found speaking in different voices over the train accident in West Bengal's Midnapore, in which 65 people have been killed. The question now is: What caused the derailment? While Home Minister P Chidambaram said that train derailment in West Bengal appears to be a case of sabotage, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee said a blast as part of a "calculated attack" caused the Gyaneshwari Express to first derail and then get hit by a goods train. "It appears to be a case of sabotage where a portion of the railway track was removed. Whether explosives were used is not yet clear," Chidambaram said in a statement. The Railway Minister further said that TNT explosives and Gelatine sticks were found at the accident site. "It is a bomb blast case. After the blast, the train derailed and the accident happened. According to information given by Railway Police Force and officials TNT and Gelatine sticks were found at the accident," Banerjee told reporters shortly after visiting the spot. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, however, contradicted the statements of both the ministers and said, "I don't know what is the cause. When I last checked, there was no evidence of either an explosion or sabotage activity." Meanwhile, the West Bengal police have said that Maoist-backed organisation People's Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA) has claimed responsibility for the accident. "Two posters belonging to the Maoist-backed PCPA have been found at the site," West Bengal Director General of Police Bhupinder Singh told NDTV. Earlier, West Bengal's Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Surojit Karpurokayastha said that according to preliminary investigation, fish plates were found removed at the derailment site. There is confusion over whether a bomb blast by Naxals or an act of sabotage by removal of fish plates led to the derailment. Whether explosives were used is not yet clear. (With inputs from agencies) -- Ashok -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send an email to greenyo...@googlegroups.com. 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