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EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
CALCUTTA, JUNE 22: Within 48 hours of the Government issuing a warning against Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)-backed infiltrators trying to sneak into North Bengal across the India-Nepal border, a bomb blast at the New Jalpaiguri railway station killed nine people and injured over 60, 42 of them critically. The dead included three Kargil-bound Army jawans and a woman.
The West Bengal Government has sounded a fresh alert in the State's sensitive areas. An alert was also sounded in Sikkim.
The deafening blast, which tore the roofs of two platforms, occurred at 12:15 pm, when the New Delhi-bound Mahananda Link Express had just arrived, divisional railway manager (Katihar) Somnath Mukherjee said.
Agency reports said the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) had claimed responsibility for the blast.
The incident seems to have been part of a conspiracy to disrupt the movement of trains in North Bengal.
The Kamtapuri Liberation Organisation (KLO), a militant body fighting for a separate Statecomprising parts of North Bengal and Lower Assam, is also suspected to be behind the blast. The KLO is known to have been aided and armed by the ULFA.
The West Bengal Government has alleged that the Kamtapuris have contacts with the ISI. State Home Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharyya told reporters here in the evening the ISI had been trying to use Siliguri in North Bengal as a corridor for ISI agents' movement across the Indo-Nepal border. The State Government had kept the Centre informed of ISI-related developments in North Bengal.
Today's incident at New Jalpaiguri station is the third day in succession that attempts to blast train tracks have been made in this area. Yesterday and the day before, the police found bombs lying on train tracks near Kalakata in North Bengal. While the bombs found yesterday did not explode, a section of the track was damaged by a minor explosion day before yesterday.
According to North Eastern Frontier Railway sources, the explosion on Sunday twisted some fish plates.
Ofthe three Army jawans killed in the explosion, two were identified as Ram Bahadur Gurung and Jim Bahadur Thapa, both from 4/5 Gorkha Regiment. The third victims's body was badly mutilated. The injured were admitted to the local railway hospital, Army hospital and the North Bengal Medical College, where the condition of at least 20 is stated to be serious.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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