Rescuers are still searching the wreckage of the express trainRailway officials in eastern India have cancelled night trains in Maoist-affected areas in the wake of Friday’s crash that left 118 people dead.
Police say Maoist rebels sabotaged the track, causing the derailment of the Calcutta-Mumbai express in the Jhargram area of West Midnapore.A Maoist spokesman denied the charge.
The area is known to be a stronghold of the Maoists, who say they are fighting for the rights of tribespeople and the rural poor.
Railway officials said they would not run any night trains in Maoist areas for the next four days, while a Maoist protest takes place.
The crash happened in the early hours of Friday about 150km (90 miles) west of Calcutta.
Police said a 46cm (1.5ft) portion of the train track had been removed, causing several carriages of the passenger train to derail and smash into an oncoming goods train.
Daylight travelOn Saturday rescuers continued to pull bodies from the wreckage. Railway officials in West Bengal told the BBC that the death toll had risen to 118.
Scores more people were injured in the crash, many of them seriously.
Reports said teams had still not been able to gain access to one badly-crushed carriage where they expected to find more bodies.
In the wake of the crash, Indian Railways said passenger trains would not run on two key sections of line in West Bengal between the hours of 2200 and 0500.
The restrictions would be in place until 0500 on 3 June, the company said. Report said other services were being rescheduled to ensure they travelled through Maoist areas of eastern India in daylight.
The Maoist “black week” of protests and education campaigning is due to end on 2 June.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described the Maoist insurgency as India’s biggest internal security challenge.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
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