Trains torched in Bihar

October 14th, 2009 PATNA - Maoists blew up a tower of a private telecom firm and torched a truck in Bihar's Sheohar District last night. According to officials, around 45 to 50 Maoists blew up the Airtel tower at Brindaban Bazar and asked villagers to stay at home.

October 13th, 2009 PATNA/RANCHI - Maoists ransacked Banshipur Railway Station in Bihar's Lakhisarai district on the second day of their two-day shutdown. They torched communication system installed in the railway cabin of the station.

September 13th, 2009 PATNA - Eleven men have been arrested for their involvement in setting a train on fire in Bihar last month following an altercation between students and railway personnel, police said Sunday. The 11 were arrested after they were identified through video clippings provided by television news channels as being part of the group that torched the Shramjivi Express Aug 18 following a row with Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel, said Deputy Inspector General (Railway Police) Arvind Pandey.

September 7th, 2009 SRINAGAR - An irate mob Monday torched two army vehicles in Jammu and Kashmir's Sumbal town after one of them ran over a six-year-old girl. The accident near the Sumbal colony, 20 km from here, triggered immediate outrage from the locals at the site where Insha lay dead after being run over by an army vehicle that was part of a passing convoy.

August 18th, 2009 PATNA - A group of students on Tuesday set four air-conditioned bogies of the Patna-Delhi Shramjeevi Express afire at the Bihta Railway station which falls between Patna and Mighal Sarai Junction in Bihar. According to sources, the students resorted to violence after Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel beat some of them up at the railway station during a ticket checking drive.

July 3rd, 2009 Metro red line trains to resume normal speedsWASHINGTON — Metro officials say red line trains in greater Washington, D.C., will return to regular speeds this holiday weekend for the first time since a deadly crash. Nine people were killed and more than 70 injured June 22 when one train slammed into another train stopped on tracks.

June 1st, 2009 KOLKATA - Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee Monday ordered a departmental inquiry into the disturbances at Khusrupur railway station in Bihar's Patna district and promised to punish officials, if they are found guilty. Addressing media persons at her Kalighat residence here, Banerjee said she or her ministry had been kept in the dark about any decision to not halt express trains at the station under the East Central Railway.

June 1st, 2009 PATNA/KOLKATA/NEW DELHI - An angry mob in Bihar's Patna district set ablaze coaches of two passenger trains, uprooted rail lines and ransacked the railway station at Khusrupur to protest the decision not to halt any express train there. Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee has ordered a probe into the incident and restoration of the service.

June 1st, 2009 PATNA - Three trains came under attack of hundreds of agitated people about 32 kilometre from Patna on Monday morning over Railways' decision to withdraw halt of various trains at Bihar's Khusrupur railway station. The furious mob torched train bogies, ransacked station and uprooted rail lines falling under Danapur division Local residents were outraged after reading the East Central Railway's announcement in morning newspaper stating withdrawal of stoppage of several express trains, including Rajgir-New Delhi Shramajivi Express and Kosi Express at Khusrupur.

June 1st, 2009 PATNA - Coaches of two passenger trains were set ablaze, rail lines uprooted and the Khusrupur railway station in Bihar's Patna district was ransacked by a mob Monday to protest the East Central Railway's decision to not halt any express train at the station. The running of nearly a dozen trains on the Danapur-Howrah and Patna-Barauni routes was disrupted following the incident and hundreds of passengers stranded at different railway stations.

February 12th, 2009 THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - Kerala chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan Friday said he is disappointed with the interim rail budget for 2009-10 presented by Railways Minister Lalu Prasad in parliament.

January 31st, 2009 PATNA - Railways Minister Lalu Prasad is set to gift his home district, Gopalganj in Bihar, a railway division before the next Lok Sabha polls. After Lalu Prasad's ancestral village Phulwaria is connected with his wife and former chief minister Rabri Devi's Salar Kalan village, Lalu now plans to give another rare gift to Bihar by announcing the establishment of a railway division in Thawe at Gopalganj.

January 21st, 2009 PATNA - Protesting the arrest and alleged torture of their top leaders, Maoist rebels Thursday enforced a 24-hour strike, setting ablaze 11 trucks and blasting a mobile telephone signal tower in Bihar, police said. Additional Director General of Police (Headquarters) Neelmani said armed Maoists forcibly stopped the 11 trucks and set them ablaze in Rohtas, about 150 km from here.

January 20th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Dismissing a public interest petition on trains often running late, the Delhi High court Wednesday said it does not have a magic wand to solve all problems. A division bench headed by Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah pulled up the petitioner who was seeking directions to the government to run trains on time.

January 11th, 2009 PATNA - In the drive to make Bihar a crime-free state, the police have sought divine intervention by performing special prayers at the railway stations to prevent any wrongdoing in trains. Special prayers were organised by the Government Railway Police (GRP) at the Ara railway station in Bhojpur district, about 60 km from here.