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Stones Thrown at Trains

Four-year-old boy becomes latest victim

Staff Correspondent, Rajshahi
What started out as a happy beginning of a monthly vacation for a family turned worrisome on Sunday night, as the youngest member was knocked out by a stone flying in through a train window.
Four-year-old Salman Jahan Jisan was undergoing treatment at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital yesterday, with a one-inch wide and half-inch deep cut on the right side of his head.
He was unconscious after the incident, and was asleep since a minor surgery at RMCH at midnight. When he woke up in the morning, he asked his father why they were in the hospital and whether they had reached Dhaka, said his father Abdus Salam.
Salam is a Dhaka-based businessman; while his wife is a teacher of a government primary school in Rajshahi. They are parents of two sons.
The family was travelling to Dhaka by the intercity Padma Express for their Ramadan holidays, like they do every year.
"I went to Rajshahi to bring them to Dhaka," said Salam.
When their train was travelling between
Jamtoil and Martyred Capt Mansur Ali station in Sirajganj, a stone hit the child.
"I could not stop his bleeding on the running train. I knew the train's driver and I called him to stop," Salam said.
The child was initially admitted to Sirajganj Sadar Hospital. The family took him to RMCH as they found medical facilities inadequate there.
An on-duty doctor at RMCH said they were keeping Salman under observation, and had ordered a few tests to find the extent of the injury.
A RECURRING MENACE
Incidents of stone throwing at trains are occurring often on Rajshahi-Dhaka route these days, injuring passengers. Most of the incidents are not reported, says a railway official, adding that they recorded at least 17 incidents of stoning in last one month.
The menace has turned fatal for passengers and railway staff in the past, said Ashim Kumar Talukder, chief signal and telecommunication engineer of railway's west zone.
On April 30 last year, railway inspector Bayezid Shikder received critical injuries after a Khulna-bound Benapole commuter train came under stone attack near Daulatpur station. Bayezid later succumbed to his injuries at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University on June 11.
In a probe of the incident, railway authorities found a minor responsible for throwing the stone; he told the probing team he threw the stone while he was playing in the field, Ashim Kumar said.
Railway authorities then formed more than 20 groups of officials, railway police and staffers who conducted an awareness
campaign against stones thrown at trains from slums developed on both sides of railway tracks in both western and eastern zones of railway.
Following the month-long campaign, the incidents had come down, but are on the rise again, he said.
"Throwing stones at trains is a punishable offence, and can endanger safety of anyone in the train," the railway official said. He said he would propose launching another phase of the campaign against the crime.