Blast in WB kills 9, ISI suspected
Express News Service
The Indian Express
June 23, 1999
Title: Blast in WB kills 9, ISI suspected
Author: Express News Service
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: June 23, 1999
CALCUTTA, JUNE 22: Within 48 hours of the Government issuing a warning
against Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)-backed infiltrators trying
to sneak into North Bengal across the India-Nepal border, a bomb blast
at the New Jalpaiguri railway station killed nine people and injured
over 60, 42 of them critically. The dead included three Kargil-bound
Army jawans and a woman.
The West Bengal Government has sounded a fresh alert in the State's
sensitive areas. An alert was also sounded in Sikkim.
The deafening blast, which tore the roofs of two platforms, occurred
at 12:15 pm, when the New Delhi-bound Mahananda Link Express had just
arrived, divisional railway manager (Katihar) Somnath Mukherjee said.
Agency reports said the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom
(ULFA) had claimed responsibility for the blast.
The incident seems to have been part of a conspiracy to disrupt the
movement of trains in North Bengal.
The Kamtapuri Liberation Organisation (KLO), a militant body fighting
for a separate Statecomprising parts of North Bengal and Lower Assam,
is also suspected to be behind the blast. The KLO is known to have
been aided and armed by the ULFA.
The West Bengal Government has alleged that the Kamtapuris have
contacts with the ISI. State Home Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharyya
told reporters here in the evening the ISI had been trying to use
Siliguri in North Bengal as a corridor for ISI agents' movement across
the Indo-Nepal border. The State Government had kept the Centre
informed of ISI-related developments in North Bengal.
Today's incident at New Jalpaiguri station is the third day in
succession that attempts to blast train tracks have been made in this
area. Yesterday and the day before, the police found bombs lying on
train tracks near Kalakata in North Bengal. While the bombs found
yesterday did not explode, a section of the track was damaged by a
minor explosion day before yesterday.
According to North Eastern Frontier Railway sources, the explosion on
Sunday twisted some fish plates.
Ofthe three Army jawans killed in the explosion, two were identified
as Ram Bahadur Gurung and Jim Bahadur Thapa, both from 4/5 Gorkha
Regiment. The third victims's body was badly mutilated. The injured
were admitted to the local railway hospital, Army hospital and the
North Bengal Medical College, where the condition of at least 20 is
stated to be serious.
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