Although an anonymous note warning of an attack was received by the station master of Old Delhi station, little was done to enhance protection for passengers.
NEW DELHI: Sunday’s blasts on the Samjhauta Express have blown the cover off a catalogue of security lapses and instances of negligence.
Although an anonymous letter warning of an attack was sent to the station master of Old Delhi railway station, where the train originates, little was done to enhance protection for the passengers.
Anup Srivastava, deputy inspector-general, Railway Protection Force, told DNA that the station master had received the letter 15 days ago.
“The sender had threatened to target important trains leaving the station and to blow up Amritsar railway station,” Srivastava said. The letter was forwarded to ‘higher authorities’ and, it seems, promptly forgotten.
Security arrangements for the high-profile Samjhauta Express remained lax as ever. Neither the passengers nor their luggage is checked before they board the train to Attari. At Attari, passengers are moved to the Samjhauta Express bound for Lahore.
“It is difficult to check the baggage of every passenger,” Srivastava said. “We are using very primitive methods and we depend mostly on random checks.”
Railway Minister Lalu Prasad acknowledged the railways’ slackness. “Yes, there has been [a security lapse],” he said. He told correspondents at the blast site that the railways have no infrastructure to check passengers or baggage at stations.
Some checks, such as they are, are carried out only when the train reaches Attari. Even here, the authorities are more concerned about the trains that come from Lahore, a railways official said. That is so because in the past arms, explosives, and drugs were found on the Samjhauta Express bound for India.
The train that leaves Attari for Lahore is usually allowed to go without inspection. Outward-bound passengers are monitored largely for fraudulent travel documents.
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