Railway authorities on Sunday conducted a security check along the South Eastern Railway's Sardiha-Jhargram stretch where two passengers of the Howrah-Tatanagar Steel Express, including a policeman, were injured in cross fire between Maoists and joint forces.
SER sources said a
special train, comprising an engine and a coach, carried senior railway security officials and a posse of security men from Sardiha to Banstala Halt where the firing took place yesterday.
From Banstala, the team went on foot up to Jhargram for an inch-by-inch inspection of the tracks, with the special train travelling behind them at slow speed.
Denying reports by a section of the electronic media that the special train had been hijacked, the sources said that it took time for the train to reach Jhargram as it was travelling at very slow speed behind the inspection team.
"The train started from Sardiha at 12.45 pm and reached Jhargram at 3.45 pm because of the slow speed. There is no question of a hijack," they said.
West Midnapore Superintendent of Police Manoj Verma had said yesterday that two persons were injured when bullets fired by Maoists during an anti-Maoist operation hit the compartment of the Steel Express at Banstala station.
It was at Banstala that Maoists had detained the Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express for eight hours on October 27 last year during a shutdown called by the PCPA.