By IANS,
Srinagar : Separatist guerrillas disrupted railway traffic for the first time Friday after they carried out an improvised explosive device (IED) blast and destroyed eight feet of a rail track in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district. Rail traffic was later restored.
Around eight feet of rail track was blown up in the IED blast carried out by militants at Gulbugh (Ratnipora) near Kakapora railway station in Pulwama district late Thursday.
“The repair and restoration work was started by the railway authorities Friday morning and rail traffic on the track has now been restored,” Senior Superintendent of Police Mubarak Ganai told IANS on phone.
Railway authorities allowed passenger trains to move after checking the technical soundness of the restored portion of the track.
The passenger train scheduled for departure at 7.30 a.m. from Qazigund to Baramulla had to be cancelled because of the damage to the rail track at Gulbugh.
The passenger train scheduled for departure from Qazigund to Badgam at 10.10 a.m. was re-scheduled and the train left the station for Badgam at 10.35 a.m., Ganai said.
Hundreds of armed guards of the railway protection force keep vigil along the 120 km rail track from south Kashmir’s Anantnag district to north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
Friday’s disruption was the first of its kind as militants have not disrupted rail traffic in the Valley since it started here in 2008.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had inaugurated the extended rail link from Anantnag town to Qazigund in October 2009.