After a harrowing time when the Delhi-bound Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express was held hostage by Maoists in West Bengal's West Midnapore district Tuesday, passengers of the train finally breathed easy as they arrived in the national capital Wednesday, nearly 11 hours behind the schedule.
As the train chugged to a stop at the New Delhi railway station here Wednesday evening, the tired but vastly relieved passengers jumped out of their coaches eagerly and made for the exit. The train was scheduled to reach New Delhi at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
Nearly 50 Scouts, brought by the Northern Railway, welcomed the passengers with roses.
'We boarded the train at 10 a.m. Tuesday. It looks as if we have been in the train forever,' Ashok Sharma, travelling to the national capital from Cuttack, said with relief.
'They were tribals and were carrying arms. But they did not harm us. They asked us to get down from the train. It was a horrible wait,' he told IANS.
'For more than eight hours, no one came to our rescue. We were on our own,' he added.
Sangeeta, who is from Chandigarh, said: 'Though they didn't harm us, they asked us to get off the train and switch off our mobile phones. The railway administration reached at the place very late.'
'I was to take Shatabdi to go back home but I have missed that. I am yet to figure out how I will go back home,' she added.
Sohan Singh Majila of Dehradun said: 'There were no security guards in the train after Kharagpur. Rajdhani is a special train and such lack of security is surprising.'
'Maoists didn't harm us, but they even helped passengers in taking their luggage out of the train when they asked us to deboard the train,' he added.
Similar sentiments were echoed by Harsh Kumar.
A resident of Hapur in Uttar Pradesh, Kumar boarded the train at Bhubaneswar. He said: 'The police and railway police came so late. There was no one for our protection.'
'They took away all the food. It looked like they were from the adjoining villages. They told us that they are our friends and didn't want to harm us. They said that their fight is with the government,' Kumar said.
The New Delhi railway station's platform number 1, where the Rajdhani Express finally stopped, was bustling with activity since evening when the news came that the train will finally reach at 7.30 p.m. Anxious relatives made a beeline to receive their loved ones at the train.
The mediapersons also were camping at the station for several hours to talk to the passengers.
On Tuesday, the Maoist-backed People's Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) held up the Rajdhani Express for more than four hours at Banstala Halt near West Midnapore's Jhargram station.
The over-500 PCAPA members squatted on the tracks and forced out the train's drivers at the halt station near the Antapani jungle.
After several tension-filled hours, which saw a police team proceeding to the spot ambushed by the Left-wing rebels, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers and state policemen finally took over the train.
None of the passengers was injured.
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