Students held for placing stones on rail track

KASARGOD: The police on Thursday arrested four students, all below the age of 16 years, for placing four granite stones on the railway track in Kanjikkatta near Uppla. The students, who were hiding behind a bush after placing the stones on the railway track, were nabbed by local people. The locals handed them over to the Manjeswaram police, and they were sent to juvenile homes on Thursday.The incident occured around noon on Wednesday when the Chennai-Mangalore mail was to pass through the track. The students, hailing from Hidayath Nagar in Uppla, confessed to the police that they stoned the engine of a passing train in Uppla the other day.The arrest of the students has come as a relief to the train passengers travelling between Manjeswaram and Kumbla. Incidents were reported recently in which large stones were hurled at passing trains. A woman suffered injuries in one of such attacks. The glass panes of an air-conditioned coach were smashed in the stone-pelting a few days ago.The students also confessed that they had thrown stones at the loco pilot in the engine room so that he could not control the train, which might lead to its derailment.However, the police are yet to arrest the miscreants who placed a hexameter on the track in Vamanchoor on September 12. A stone was also placed on the track near  the Kumbla railway station on September 12. The investigation into both the incidents is dragging, and the nabbing of the students by local people has come as jolt to the police. They are now hoping that the arrested students might be able to give some information about the previous attempts to derail trains.According to intelligence sources, the hexameter was placed on the track on the night of September 12 when a meeting was organised by the PDP in Uppla town demanding the release of Abdul Nasser Madhani from jail. Several people who had attended the meeting returned home through the railway track. On Wednesday, when the students placed stones on the track, the Popular Front of India (PFI) had organised a programme in which they showed some videos. The police have arrested five PFI activists for organising the programme without police permission.Intelligence sources said the students placed stones on the track to divert the police probe. A sleeper cell of extremists may be using the students as tools to carry out their operation. Central Intelligence Bureau (CIB) Chief Haresene Varma had informed DGP Jacob Punnoose that extremist elements were trying to derail trains between Kumbla and Manjeswaram. The CIB chief had also asked the DGP to arrest the miscreants.But the police failed to conduct a serious investigation into the case. The Manjeswaram police had arrested some nomads suspecting that they might have placed the stones on the track. But they were released after it became clear that they had no role in the incident. About two years ago, a graffiti had appeared in a bus shelter in Manjeswaram Mada hailing the Taliban and the Indian Mujahideen. The police removed the graffiti and the next day it appeared in the same place. The police haven’t so far arrested the miscreants who had written the anti-national slogans.