NEWSLINKS
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Rediff Shopping

Shop & gift from thousands of products!   Books     Music       Apparel   Jewellery   Flowers   More..      Safe Shopping

Nine killed, 80 injured in train bomb blast near Faizabad

At least nine persons were killed and 80 injured when a bomb went off on the Ahmedabad-bound Sabarmati Express near Rosa village, about 85 km east of Lucknow, at about 2230 IST on Monday.

According to an official spokesman, the explosion occurred barely an hour after the Sabarmati Express left Faizabad.

The bomb was probably planted in the train at Faizabad. The train had originated from Muzaffarpur in Bihar in the morning and was running about three hours behind schedule.

Senior railway and police officials said the bomb was hidden in the parcel van adjoining the last passenger coach of the train. "The fact that the roof of the coach was completely blown off reflects the intensity of the bomb," said a top police officer in Faizabad.

The proximity of the blast site to Ayodhya (Faizabad is just 7 km from Ayodhya) led District Magistrate Archana Agarwal to intensify security in and around the disputed Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi site.

No sooner was information of the blast received at the state capital Lucknow than an accident relief train was rushed with a team of doctors to attend to the injured who, according to an eyewitness, "were wailing and writhing in pain along the tracks in the darkness".

Another bomb blast in the thickly populated Arya Nagar precinct in Kanpur left 10 persons, including three policemen, injured. Police suspect the hand of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence in both blasts.

According to the police, three bombs were concealed in a mound of sand in the thickly populated Arya Nagar area in the heart of Kanpur, the state's industrial capital. "As the first blast drew policemen from the neighbouring police station to the site, the two other explosive devices went off, injuring them," a Kanpur police officer told rediff.com on the telephone.

The injured were rushed to the local government hospital. A search has been launched for suspected ISI agents in the city of 5 million.

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report