Former DGPs, Retired Bureaucrats & Judges Hint At Sabotage Behind Balasore Rail Tragedy In Letter to PM

New Delhi, June 10: About 270 retired bureaucrats, senior officers of the armed forces and former judges, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have raised suspicion over deliberate human interference behind the Balasore rail accident that claimed 288 lives and left more than 1100 passengers injured.

The signatories to the letter, some of whom have worked in counter-insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East, have hinted at a clear case of sabotage at the behest of terrorist outfits, fearing that forces inimical to the country’s progress would like the network disrupted and create a catastrophe with massive human targeted.

The letter has demanded removal of illegal squatters along railway tracks, including illegal immigrants and stringent measures to secure the safety of the railway tracks.

The signatories included former DGP of Uttar Pradesh Vikram Singh and former DGP of Jammu and Kashmir S.P Vaid.

“We are increasingly concerned at the forces at work, increasingly active, doing all they can to undermine our national security and progress. We are greatly disturbed by the tragedy that has taken place in Balasore, Orissa involving our rapidly growing and modernizing Railways. Although investigation is still underway, as per initial media reports, there are reasons to suspect that the cause of the derailment could be deliberate human interference, a clear case of sabotage at the behest of terrorist outfits,” the civil servants have said in their letter to the PM.

They said that they have had to confront with situations during counter-insurgency operations where elements were at work to destabilise the smooth plying of railway network.

“There were similar well planned attempts by terrorists to disrupt railway networks in these vulnerable areas, leading to sabotage, derailment and civilian casualties. In one of the many cases, J&K witnessed multiple attacks on railway lines from Pathankot to Jammu in 1990s and early 2000s where the tracks were severely damaged. Catastrophic accidents stopped only after proper deployment was made,” the retired civil servants said.

The entire Railway network is vulnerable and is particularly so in Eastern and Northeastern States, including the so-called ‘Chicken’s Neck’, they added.