Silchar, April 26: The Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel) struck again today, this time showering bullets on two relief trains carrying food, medicines and other essential commodities for employees posted in remote stations on the metre gauge hill section of the Northeast Frontier Railway.
Three security personnel on one of the trains were injured while those guarding the other train escaped unhurt.
In the first attack, at least a dozen Jewel rebels, hiding atop the Barail range pumped bullets into the engine and brake-van of the relief train between Mahur and Migrengdisa railway stations in North Cachar Hills around noon.
Startled at first, the 20 security personnel on board soon retaliated, forcing the rebels to flee.
Three security men were injured in the gun battle.
Omprakash Jha, from the 12 Assam Police Battalion, was hit in the right leg and had to be rushed to Haflong Civil Hospital.
Two others, Railway Protection Security Force employee Sourav Kumar and a Government Railway Police man Shudangshu Nath received bullet injuries in their hands.
The site of the ambush is about 92km from Lumding.
Migrengdisa, in fact, is a favourite ambush spot for DHD (J) leader Jewel Gorlosa.
Police sources in Haflong later confirmed that the attack was indeed the handiwork of the DHD (J) and that AK series of rifles had been used.
The other relief train, which steamed off from Badarpur station around 9.35am today, was attacked at Bagetar, 74km from the station around 1pm today.
There were no casualties in this firing though.
“The trains were carrying relief for our employees and security personnel. The situation is bad,” said Northeast Frontier Railway CPRO S. Hajong.
On April 15, the Dimasa rebels rained bullets on a goods train at Migrengdisa, 19km from Haflong.
On April 10, the outfit attacked the only passenger train which had been running in the district, killing one CRPF constable and injuring 17 others near Wadrengdisha.
On April 11, two special police officers of the railways were killed and another injured when the rebels attacked a goods train carrying rice at Diajobra station under Langting police station.
A month earlier, the Northeast Frontier Railway withdrew train services from the Lumding-Silchar section for a day after an unsuccessful attempt by militants to blow up tracks.
Nearly a week ago, two dozen railway staff vacated their stations in North Cachar Hills and moved to Badarpur following the recurrent terror strikes on trains and tracks.
The employees, working at the 23 stations across the hill section, intimated the Northeast Frontier Railway authorities in both their primary headquarters in Maligoan and divisional headquarters in Lumding that they could no longer risk working under the shadow of rebels’ gun.
Over 250 railway employees are still on duty, trying to keep operations going in the railway section that was opened in 1904.
Movement of night trains, both passenger and goods, has been put on hold in this section since last January.
A skeletal service works during the day but that, too, is under threat following the recent attacks, despite the trains being armed with personnel carrying AK assault rifles, carbines, grenades and rocket launchers. Police’s assurances of a foolproof security plan, however, have failed to cut much ice with railway employees in the troubled zone. THE TELEGRAPH
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