Train derails due to sabotage in Feni

Mahanagar Godhuli inter-city derailed in Feni late Thursday night as some miscreants removed fishplates, says a railway official.

The derailment snapped rail link of Chittagong with the rest of Bangladesh, Chittagong Railway Station Manager Shamsul Alam said Friday morning.

Six coaches of the train derailed around 11:00pm.

No casualties were reported in the accident, though passengers were subjected to sufferings as they were stuck in the train, he said.

He blamed ‘miscreants’ for the sabotage. “Rail communications with Dhaka and Sylhet have come to a halt.”

Fishplates are flat iron plates used to join two railway track sections to make out of it a continuous track.

Shamsul Alam said trains from Chittagong and Laksham were conducting rescue operations at the site. “Train communications will resume once the link is restored.”

Turna Nishita and Paharika Express trains from Dhaka and Sylhet could not reach Chittagong in time. Mahanagar Probhati and Paharika Express, scheduled to leave Chittagong in the morning, had to be postponed.

On Thursday, Jamaat-e-Islami supporters set rail tracks on fire in Sitakunda, hours after the International Crimes Tribunal-1 gave death sentence to party leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee. The incident had severed Chittagong rail link with rest of the country for two hours.

A slipper was also found removed from the tracks in Aditmari of Lalmonirhat Thursday night. However, any mishaps or delays in trains were not reported as the authorities quickly fixed the problem, said Lalmonirhat Station Master Mojibor Rahman.