Stone pelted on Howrah-NJP Vande Bharat again

Stone pelting on the Howrah-New Jalpaiguri Vande Bharat Express train has been reported from West Bengal over a month after a series of such incidents occurred on the same train. According to Eastern Railway, the incident happened in Murshidabad district's Farakka in the late evening on Saturday when the window panes of a coach of the high-speed train were damaged.

“This is a very unfortunate incident. It will be investigated,” chief public relations officer of Eastern Railway Kausik Mitra said. Similar incidents were reported in January when miscreants attacked the newly-launched Howrah-New Jalpaiguri Vande Bharat Express train.

This is reportedly the fifth time that the train has been under attack and the third such incident in West Bengal. Earlier, the train was attacked in West Bengal, on the second day of its operation when stones were thrown at the two coaches of the train in Malda and the next day in Kishanganj.

According to reports, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) earlier informed stones were pelted on the train near Darjeeling's Phansidewa. “Windows of coach C3 and C6 of Vande Bharat Express were found damaged due to stone pelting. It was found, windows were damaged near Phansidewa area in Darjeeling district when the train was moving towards New Jalpaiguri,” an RPF official had said.