Two die after being pushed out of train in Bengal

Siliguri, Aug 19 (IANS) Two people were killed in West Bengal after being pushed out of a Guwahati-bound train carrying Assamese fleeing Bangalore, officials said Sunday. Two more bodies were found on the tracks later with police suspecting they were also thrown out of a moving train.

The first two bodies were found Saturday night at a place between Belakoba and Raninagar stations of North East Frontier Railway (NEF).

While one of the victims died on the spot, the other succumbed in the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri where he and nine others injured, four of them seriously, had been admitted for treatment. One of the victims has been identified.

NEF Railway spokesman S. Hajong told IANS that 11 people were thrown out of the train shortly after it left New Jalpaiguri station.

Eight of the injured hail from Assam, and one is from Bengal's Malda district.

Railway sources said the train was carrying a large number of people from Assam who had left Bangalore following rumours that people from the northeast could be targeted.

One of the injured said that after the train left New Jalpaiguri, a group of unidentified men robbed passengers of their belongings and then threw them out after the train crossed Belakoba.

Two other bodies were found on the railway track at Falakata in Jalpaiguri Sunday morning, Government Railway Police sources said. One body has been identified.

"They may have been thrown out of the train. We are not ruling that out. Investigation is on," said a GRP officer.

Train movement was disrupted for some time as the locals demonstrated on the track with the dead bodes.