Stones pelted at Rajdhani, Lankan injured

Miscreants pelted stones at the 12302 New Delhi-Howrah Rajdhani Express when it was near Aligarh (about 130 km from New Delhi) on Wednesday evening, smashing window panes and injuring a Sri Lankan passenger travelling in an AC-II tier coach. Irate passengers threatened to hold up the train once it reached Kanpur as there were no security personnel on board.

The injured passenger, Ben Mendis, an official of the Sri Lankan railways, groaned in pain but there were no painkillers in the medical kit on board. There were no doctors among the passengers either.

According to railway officials, stone-pelting on important trains like the Rajdhani has turned into a perennial problem near Aligarh. In spite of this, these express trains do not have escorts between New Delhi and Mughalsarai.

"The incident occurred around 6.15pm. Several coaches were hit by the stones. The injured passenger was occupying a lower berth in the A3 coach when a stone hit the window pane between berths 29 and 30. The windows have two panes but both were shattered and the passenger's nose was smashed. Train superintendent B. N. Chakraborty rushed to the spot and applied first-aid. An announcement was made for a doctor among the passengers but there was no response. The outer pane of the window near berth 1 was also shattered. So was the pane of a window in the B7 AC-III tier coach," an official said. (Source: The Times of India)