A morning abuzz with religious fervour turned into one of sheer mourning and mayhem in Bihar on Monday when nearly 37 Hindu devotees were killed under the wheels of a speeding train and three dozen others were badly injured. An angry mob then set afire ten coaches of two trains, killed one train driver and left another battling for life.
The tragic accident occurred at Dhamara Ghat railway station in Khagaria district at about 8.50 am when the speeding Rajya Rani Express, having no scheduled stop at this station, mowed a large group of devotees who had alighted from two local trains and were crossing the tracks, said railway officials and eyewitnesses. The dead people, mostly women and children, possibly failed to know the speeding express train’s arrival due to the loud religious music accompanying them as they hurried to reach the Katyayani Sthan temple just outside the station to offer holy water to Lord Shiva, said railway sources. The number of the dead people was expected to go up because, with the bodies lying scattered and badly mangled around the tracks, officials found it hard to count the exact number of people killed. This Monday being the fourth and final one in the Hindu holy month of Shravan (July-August), there was a larger than usual crowd of devotees (Kanwarias) at the railway station.
The driver of the Saharsa-Patna Rajya Rani Express applied brakes upon seeing a crowd on the tracks, but it was too late as the train was running at a speed of about 80 km per hour, said East Central Railway CPRO Amitav Prabhakar. “Rescue and relief efforts were badly thwarted due to the mob fury. Two relief trains reached the accident site and began work only after the violent mob was dispersed,” he added.
Angry protesters vandalised the passenger coaches of the Rajya Rani Express and two local trains, set afire at least ten coaches, including an AC coach of the express train, held railway officials on board the trains hostage and beat up two train drivers. One of the drivers was killed in the attack. The engine of the Samastipur-Saharsa passenger train was torched, said officials.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar mourned the deaths and described the accident as “the rarest of rare incident”. He announced an ex gratia of `1.5 lakh to the families of each victim along with `50,000 for each injured one from the CM’s Relief Fund. Kumar also spoke to both railway minister Malliarjun Kharge and ECR general manager Madhuresh Kumar.