Railway sabotage to be checked, says minister

GAZIPUR, Jan 8 (UNB) : Railway Minister Mujibul Haque said on Thursday necessary measures would be taken to prevent the acts of sabotage on railways during the 20-party-sponsored countrywide blockade.
"Railway police have been put on alert …they'll work to check subversive activities where necessary," said he told reporters after inaugurating a healthcare centre on the Ijtema ground here.  Despite subversive activities by blockaders the minister said all the 234 trains on different routes have been kept operative.  About uprooting of railway fishplates in Joypurhat and Kulaura of Moulvibazar, Mujibul Haque said necessary measures have been taken to repair the railway tracts and resume train movement.  At least 50 people were injured as six compartments and the locomotive of a train derailed in Kulaura upazila in Moulvibazar district early Thursday after blockaders removed fishplates from the rail tracks.
Rail communications on Khulna-Rajshahi and Rajshahi-Dhaka routes remained snapped four hours on Thursday as blockaders removed fishplates of the rail tracks in Sadar upazila during the ongoing countrywide indefinite transport blockade.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Railway has been put on high alert to avert any further acts of sabotage across the country amid the ongoing nonstop blockade enforced by the BNP-led 20-party alliance, said Railway Director General Amzad Hossain on Thursday.