Passengers huddle in fear amid bomb scare

It was a harrowing time for thousands of passengers as several trains running on Secunderabad-Kazipet section were stranded for 3-4 hours even as tension mounted at Mahbubabad railway station in Warangal where Telangana activists resorted to heavy stone-pelting on Friday morning. With rumours of a bomb being planted and railway lines being disrupted at several points between Vangapalli in Nalgonda district and Station Ghanpur in Warangal enroute to Mahbubabad,nearly 20 trains were stopped by the authorities. Passengers of Trivandrum-Korba Express, was stopped at Mahbubabad for over 3 hours, had tense moments as stones rained on their train. While window shutters were closed by the scared passengers,the windowpane of the guard cabin was broken in the stone-throwing by the mob. The Inter-City Express that YS Jaganmohan Reddy boarded at Secunderabad to reach Mahbubabad was stopped at Vangapalli station for several hours. SCR had to stop over a dozen trains, including the Bhubaneswar-Mumbai Konark Express and Bangalore-Nizamuddin Rajdhani Express, due to the bomb threat. However, SCR will not cancel any trains on May 29 but has in statement said that owing to the proposed agitations, some train services including MMTS trains may be cancelled at short notice. Such cancellations will be intimated to rail users through media. In a statement issued by SCR, several trains plying within the state and a few long distance trains were affected on Friday.

Due to the bomb threat, Bangalore-Patna (2295) was stopped at Khammam, Secunderabad-Gorakhpur train (2590) was stopped at Pembarti.Hyderabad-Hazrat Nizamuddin East Coast Express was stopped at Secunderabad. The Bangalore-Nizamuddin Rajdhani express was stopped at Aler and Bhubaneswar-Mumbai Konark Express was stopped at Warangal. Mumbai-Bhubaneswar Konark Express was stopped at Bibinagar and the Trivandrum-Korba Express was stopped at Mahbubabad. Two security special trains, carrying bomb disposal squads, GRP personnel and civil and mechanical engineering staff ran from Kazipet towards Jangaon and Mahbubabad from 10.05 am to check safety of tracks and then gave clearance for movement of passenger trains. A dozen short distance express and passenger trains were cancelled due to the law and order situation prevailing in Secunderabad. Trains such as Secunderabad-Guntur Express, Adilabad-Tirupati Krishna Express, Secunderabad-Sirpur Khagnagar Express, Secbad-Mancherial special were run till Kazipet. Bhadrachalam-Sirpur Khagnagar passenger was terminated at Yelgur. Several inter-city trains were also cancelled.

Several students appearing for the law exams of Kakatiya University at Warangal had to disembark at Vangapalli and take alternative modes of transport. A student who boarded a bus at Alair was livid as he missed the exam. At Muppallaramaram in Raghunathapalli,huge trees were felled by the protesters on the train tracks. Sources said the angry protesters removed pin reel clips and couplings on the tracks at Vangapalli, Raghunathapalli, Station Ghanpur and Karunapuram stations.Hundreds of agitators squatted on the tracks for several hours leading to disruption of rail traffic.It was around 1.30 pm when the authorities began restoring traffic by carrying out repairs and allowing trains for their onward journey.
==============================
Jagan supporters set train on fire

Tension prevailed in Tirupati when hundreds of supporters of YS Jaganmohan Reddy set fire to Padmavathi Express in Tirupati at around 5 pm on Friday. While one bogie was completely destroyed, another bogie caught fire. Fire services personnel detached the bogies and fought hard to douse the flames. Railway CI Bhaskar Naidu said an inquiry has been ordered into the incident.

=========================================
(source-toi)