Stones pelted at Vande Bharat Express again, passengers in fear

Malda (West Bengal) [India], January 21 (ANI): An incident of stone pelting on a Vande Bharat Express train has been reported in Bihar’s Katihar in which the window pane of one of the coaches of the high-speed train was damaged, police said on Saturday.

The incident was reported to have taken place on Friday near Telta Railway Station under the police station of Balrampur in Katihar district. The right side glass window of a coach of the 22302 down Vande Bharat Express was reported damaged.

On Saturday a train escort party informed local authorities that passengers travelling in Coach No. C-6 had reported that stones were pelted at the train. The incident reportedly took place between Dalkhola and the Telta railway stations at about 04.25 pm on Friday. Passengers on the train seemed displeased and called the incident uncivilized.

“This is an example of uncivilized behaviour. The offenders should be immediately punished,” the traveller said. People showed resentment at the security of the train as they are travelling with women and children.

“This is a new train. How can one afford to attack this train, this is unacceptable. If this continues, people will stop taking Vande Bharat and the number of passengers will dip if people don’t have a reason to believe the security apparatus. These repeated incidents have created terror psychosis. The train which returns to Howrah reaches there at night, which is even more dangerous because attacks can increase at night,” said another passenger.

Sadhna Vaidya, who was travelling with her child said that the train is a national asset. “It is our responsibility to take care of it. Instead of taking care, we are indulging in destroying it. We should be maintaining and taking care of it,” she added.

Arun Kumar Yadav, canteen manager said,” When we heard the announcement that the stones are pelted we went and saw that the window was broken. There are no injuries but the loss has occured to the railways.”

The right side window glass of coach C-6 sustained damages. The matter was reported to the Railway Police Dalkhola which has sent a probe team to conduct an on-the-spot investigation.

The train began its journey from New Jalpaiguri at 3.05 PM with the final destination in Howrah at 10.35 PM.

Earlier, on January 12 three persons were arrested in Vishakapatnam in connection with an alleged stone pelting incident on the new Vande Bharat Express train, the police said.

On January 2, stones were also pelted at the train connecting Howrah to New Jalpaiguri, within just four days after its launch. Window panes of the Vande Bharat Express were broken as stones were thrown at the train connecting Howrah to New Jalpaiguri near Malda.

On January 3, two window panes of the Vande Bharat Express train were damaged after stones were allegedly pelted on the two coaches near the Phansidewa area of Darjeeling. (ANI)