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| Threat to blowup railway station, security upped | | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu | Oct 20
Security has been upped at the Jammu railway station following a threatening letter purportedly written by the hardcore terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba cadres to blow up stations in Jammu and Punjab.
The letter was mailed to the office of the Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) of Uttar Pradesh, and it threatened to blow railway stations in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.
A police official said the antecedents of the letter are being verified, and no chances are being taken.
Meanwhile, the railway authorities and the security officials are having brainstorming sessions on evolving a foolproof mechanism for security of the railway track coming up between Jammu and Srinagar and also in the Kashmir Valley. No one is quite sure who will ensure the safety of the train and its passengers. The Ministry of Railways is dragging its feet over paying for security, insisting that the state government must pay to secure the tracks, trains and other property, and raise a security force.
State security officials, however, say the convention of sharing half the cost by both sides, as is prevalent in other states, should be followed in Jammu and Kashmir as well. An emergency meeting in Srinagar this week saw strong disagreements between railway officials, including R. Velu, the minister of state, and senior security officials from Jammu and Kashmir including Director-General of Police Kuldeep Khoda, an official present at the meeting said.
The first railway link connecting the Valley with the rest of the country - delayed by years - will be under threat from the many militant groups active in the state. There have been several attacks around track-laying sites and one engineer and his brother were shot dead in 2004 by suspected militants, leading to a temporary shutdown of work. The team of 180 engineers and hundreds of other employees had then complained about inadequate security arrangements.
By June next year, trains are expected to run on a 119-kilometer stretch from Qazigund in southern Kashmir to Baramulla town. But the link will be connected to the national network only in 2012.
To begin with, a 3,000-member security force is needed for the train, incurring a projected expense of Rs 35 crore a year. "The Railways wants to spend on everything but security. They say security is the job of the state. We say it should be 50:50," a state government official said. "It is a myopic approach. The Railways Ministry unilaterally decided that even the guarding of rail property like tracks and bridges is the job of the state government." |
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