Bomb Rips Apart Train in India, Killing Dozens

A bomb exploded Monday night on an express train packed with holiday travelers, blowing the train off the tracks and killing dozens of passengers and crew. Police suspected eastern Indian rebel tribespeople were to blame.

The Press Trust of India news agency initially quoted officials as saying the death toll was at least 300 of the 1,000 or so people on the train. But officials said today that they expect the toll to be far below that.

Working in darkness with cranes and floodlights, rescuers pulled 26 corpses from the wreckage, said railway spokesman J. D. Goswami, who was in radio contact with the rescue operation. At least 54 people were hospitalized, he said.

“There may be a few more casualties, but the figure is not going to change drastically,” he said today.

The explosion ripped apart the New Delhi-bound Brahmaputra Express--named after the sacred river that flows through India’s northeast--that originated in Guwahati, the state capital of Assam.

*

“It is a huge tragedy,” said Tapan Das, a state official in Guwahati. “With New Year’s celebrations, many people were keen to travel, and they had taken the crowded train.”

The thud of the blast was heard in the railway station at Kokrajhar, from which the train had pulled out seven minutes earlier, about 7 p.m. Some police and local residents said they heard two loud explosions.

No one claimed responsibility, but the area is the center of activity for Bodo tribespeople demanding greater autonomy over their lives and natural resources.

The blast derailed the engine and the first of the train’s 18 cars and blew apart the following three cars, railway officials said.

Reuters news service reported that one of the cars torn apart was air-conditioned, with reserved seats, but that another was for passengers without reservations and was thought to be carrying far more than its intended capacity.

The third car was reportedly a restaurant car, and the news service said rail officials feared that an explosion of gas cylinders aboard it might have caused more deaths.

On Sunday, about 35 miles from the site of the train blast, separatist rebels blew up a bridge that formed the main link between India’s northeast region and the rest of the country, injuring seven people. It was not clear if the two bombings were related.

But police in Guwahati said they believed that both attacks were carried out by Bodo rebels who recently split into rival factions and that they were vying to prove their strength.

Five of India’s seven remote northeastern states are struggling against separatist uprisings. Rebels often carry out attacks to dramatize their campaigns.

The Bodo tribe has been struggling for a separate homeland for 20 years. Its members claim their culture is threatened by Muslims who emigrate from Bangladesh.

In 1987, Bodo insurgents began assaulting police and soldiers who protect the Muslim settlers. The guerrillas have also carried out ambushes and kidnappings and attacked rail lines. At least 1,000 people have died in the violence.