With the explosive looking substances on the railway track at Cheruvathur station in the district on Saturday creating public scare and putting authorities on toes, the railway tracks in the district stretching from Payyanur to Mangalore would be put under close surveillance, Deputy Inspector General of Police (North) S. Sreejith has said.
A decision to this effect was taken at a high level meeting chaired by Mr. Sreejith, who had rushed to the railway station where three “pipe bomb” like substances were found placed in one of the tracks around 6.30 a.m. by a passenger early this morning creating scare as teams of dog squad, bomb squad and finger print experts rushing to the spot to ascertain the situation.
The over 100 km long double line track stretching from Payyanur to Mangalore would now be put under close surveillance by intense patrolling on a daily basis jointly by the local and Railway Police as the operation would be supervised by Superintendent of Police (SP) and Dy. SP of Kasaragod, Mr. Sreejith told The Hindu .
The close examination of the sealed three PVC pipes connected with wire using insulation tapes was later found to have been filled with mixture of semi-wet cement and sand, he said adding that it could be suspected that the explosive looking substances could have been placed on the track by some “subversive” elements to test the alertness of security forces.
The suspicious substance on the track came days after a high level meeting chaired by S. Surendran, Kasaragod SP and senior railway officials here following recurring cases of train sabotage attempts on the 50 km long railway stretch between Kasaragod and Mangalore.
The meeting followed after train sabotage attempts were reported from Kumbla, Uppala and Majeshwaram where heavy stone and rail pieces were found placed on the tracks during the night hours.
However, major train mishaps were averted due to timely notice of heavy substances by railway gang-men and residents nearby the tracks.
Isolated incidents of stone pelting on running trains had also been reported from the northern parts of the State.
