The blasting of a railway track near Villupuram in Tamil Nadu where a major train disaster involving the Tiruchirappalli-Chennai Rockfort Express was averted on Saturday was “as an attempt at an terrorist/extremist act” and might not have been targeted at him, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said on Sunday.
Speaking to reporters here after a 30-minute meeting with Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, Chidambaram condemned the incident and said a major tragedy was averted due to the diligence of the railway staff.
Chidambaram was confident that the TN police and the state intelligence would quickly crack the case and bring the offenders to book. An FIR has been registered at the Vikravandi police station near the blast site and five locals are being questioned.
To a query, the home minister said he did not think the act was possibly targeted at him. But “the issue is not just about my life; it concerns the safety of 2,000 to 3,000 people (passengers on board the two trains including the Salem-Chennai train that had barely managed to pass the blast stretch miraculously),” he said.
Chidambaram said he had apprised the chief minister of the outcome of the India visit of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse and the bilateral agreements signed between the two countries. The Centre had agreed to assist the construction of 50,000 houses to Tamils in northern Sri Lanka, for which a credit line worth Rs 1,000 crore would be extended.