Horrible attacks. India has accused North eastern militant groups for this attack.
12 dead in W Bengal train blast
Suspected militants carried out a powerful bomb attack on a passenger train in the eastern state of West Bengal yesterday, killing at least 12 people and injuring 66, media reports said. Witnesses told the CNN-IBN news channel that 12 bodies were recovered after the blast ripped apart a compartment of a crowded train at a railway station in the northern Jalpaiguri district. The impact of the blast was such that an adjoining compartment was also damaged, the channel reported. Police, however, said only five people were killed in the blast. “According to our reports, only five people were killed in the explosion,” senior police officer Raj Kanojia told reporters. Police and local agencies had rushed to the scene of the blast and were carrying out rescue and relief operations. Many of the injured were moved to hospitals in the district which is located 450km north of state capital Kolkata.
The death toll was likely to rise as several of the injured had sustained serious injuries, West Bengal Home Secretary P R Roy said. Security officials suspect the hand of separatist groups such as the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) or the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) which are active in India’s northeastern region. “There are a number of extremist groups in India’s northeast and we suspect the KLO or the ULFA behind the attack,” Roy said, adding “we are investigating the matter, it has to be ascertained if the bomb was planted on board or it was a suicide bomb attack.” India’s northeast is a restive region where nearly 40 separatist, tribal or leftist groups are active in five states. More than 15,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency in the region in the last decade.