Bihar: Statewide alert against plot to plant explosives on trains

PATNA: After the parcel bomb blast on Darbhanga railway station on June 17, the state police headquarters has now received an intelligence input about possible attempts by a terror group to cause explosions on trains carrying daily wagers to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Sources said the intelligence input mentions that a Pakistan-based ISI operative had contacted his associate in Punjab that he would be provided with a timer device with explosive to plant it on a train in which daily wagers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh travel.
Sources said after receiving the intelligence input, all field formations in state have been asked to act in coordination with railway administration, RPF and civil administration to maintain maximum alert. All sub-divisional police officers, circle inspectors and station house officers have been directed to take all necessary and preventive steps to ensure security.
Incidentally, a massive checking and frisking drive was taken up at Patna Junction for more than three hours on Tuesday.
The GRP, RPF, bomb detection and disposal squad (BDDS) armed with deep search and handheld metal detectors and sniffer dogs checked even dustbins and all other items on all the platforms of Patna Junction.
Patna railway SP Vikash Burman said they are already on alert since the Darbhanga blast. “We are carrying intensive checking drive at important railway stations,” he said. “We are on further alert due to the upcoming Independence Day celebration and Maoists’ call for observing ‘Shahadat Saptah’ from July 28 to August 3. The alert for Maoists was generated within the state. Officers have been directed to take all possible measures,” he added.
The Darbhanga blast had already alerted the state police. A parcel packed with IED was transported from Secunderabad to Darbhanga by a train had exploded on platform number one. The NIA has arrested 4 alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba’s men in connection with the Darbhanga blast. The NIA investigation into the case revealed Lashkar’s pan India terror plot and arrested four of its alleged terrorists from Hyderabad and Kairana in Uttar Pradesh.