Delhi Metro: major accident averted

NEW DELHI: A major mishap was averted on Wednesday when the front bogie of a Delhi Metro running from Dwarka to Yamuna Bank derailed. Preliminary inquiries revealed that the incident occurred because of the train operator’s negligence. He has been suspended.

The mishap occurred at 3.20 p.m. when train no. 5015 starting from the down platform of Dwarka station and going towards Yamuna Bank, overshot the signal while changing tracks. Four wheels of the front bogie, D-313, burst through the point, derailed and travelled about 30 metres.

The train operator did not wait for the tracks to be ready before crossing over.
“Did not wait”

“Prima facie, the cause of derailment appears to be the train operator starting the train on manual mode without waiting for the ATP (Advanced Technology Programme) actualisation and crossed the signal when it was red,” said a DMRC spokesperson.

He said there were no injuries to either the passengers or the metro staff.

“Since the train had just started from Dwarka station, there were only 34 passengers on board. The passengers were evacuated and led safely to the station,” said a DMRC official.

Metro officials said there was no serious damage to the track, overhead traction or the train, as the front wheels came less than six inches off the track.

A 12-member rescue team was called from Najafgarh depot. It put the derailed bogie back on track after nearly three hours.

“Four sets of hydraulic jacks were used to put the front bogie of the train back on rail. The jacks were operated using portable gensets to lift the 40-tonne Metro coach,” said a DMRC official.

Train movement was affected and operations were run on a single line during this time. Some Dwarka-bound trains from Yamuna Bank had to be reversed from Janakpuri (West). Normal operations were not restored till after 7 p.m.

The train has been sent to the Najafgarh depot for further checks, and a high-level committee, comprising three general manager rank officers, has been constituted to enquire into the mishap.

Referring to the train operator, the spokesperson said: “He has been placed under suspension and is being questioned. He has been working trains independently since September 2008 and this was his first trip for the day.”
“Serious lapse”

The operator had started his shift at 2.55 p.m., he said, ruling out that he was over-worked or tired. Sources however told The Hindu that the incident was a “serious lapse” that could have resulted in a “major disaster.”

“The Metro trains are not run on manual mode. The operator is there just to observe while the trains are run on automatic mode. In this case, the operator did not honour the signal, which, in the railway procedures, is a serious lapse. It could have led to a major tragedy if there was another train coming in from the opposite end.”

Suu Kyi to challenge verdict as global anger grows

YANGON — Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi is set to appeal against her conviction, lawyers said, as the ruling junta faced a global wave of anger over her extended house arrest.

Powerful ally China urged respect for Myanmar's sovereignty, but Southeast Asian nations issued a rare expression of disappointment at the military regime's decision on Tuesday to detain her for another 18 months.

US President Barack Obama joined the worldwide outrage but the UN Security Council was unable to adopt a sharply-worded statement condemning the verdict, which shuts the Nobel peace laureate out of elections in 2010, as envoys sought China's support.

In Yangon, Suu Kyi's lawyer Nyan Win said her legal team would appeal because they were "not satisfied" with the judgement, which stemmed from a stunt in which American man John Yettaw swam to her lakeside house in May.

A prison court sentenced her to three years of hard labour after finding her guilty of breaching the terms of her incarceration, but junta strongman Than Shwe commuted the punishment to a year and a half under house arrest.

The authorities allowed Suu Kyi's legal team to meet her at her home for one hour on Wednesday, Nyan Win said, adding: "We discussed the appeal and we haven't finished our discussion."

Police and security forces blocked off the road outside the 64-year-old opposition leader's house on Wednesday.

Lawyers for Yettaw, who was sentenced to seven years of hard labour and imprisonment, said they would also appeal and if it failed they would urge Than Shwe to deport him.

The 54-year-old former US military veteran, who is epileptic and diabetic, is "very calm" and "hopes for the best", his lawyer Khin Maung Oo said.

Suu Kyi has been confined for 14 of the past 20 years, ever since the military regime refused to recognise her National League for Democracy's landslide victory in the last elections held in 1990.

Myanmar's state media hit back at outside involvement, with the junta-controlled New Light of Myanmar newspaper deriding those who "interfere in the internal affairs of other countries".

On the streets of Yangon there was no sign of the unrest that the state media had warned against.

"People are glad that she (Suu Kyi) is at home... But things will be quiet again after one week as our people have to worry about their own lives. It is more important than politics," said security guard Zaw Naing.

But the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is a member, added to the global chorus of dismay at the verdict, expressing "deep disappointment".

It also called for the immediate release of Suu Kyi but added that the 10-nation group -- which has been criticised in the past for failing to tackle the junta -- would "remain constructively engaged with Myanmar".

Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Wednesday offered his support to Suu Kyi, saying he was "deeply saddened" by her extended detention.

But China -- a key ally and major military supplier of the junta -- urged the international community to "fully respect Myanmar's judicial sovereignty", foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.

The UN Security Council had been due to meet on Wednesday to adopt a sharply worded statement condemning the verdict, but the meeting was cancelled after some delegations, including China, insisted on sending the text to their capitals.

In Washington, Obama called for Suu Kyi's "immediate, unconditional release" and for the freeing of more than 2,000 other political prisoners held in Myanmar.

The US president said the "unjust" sentence against Suu Kyi would never be able to stamp out the people of Myanmar's desire for freedom, accusing the regime of "continued disregard" for UN Security Council statements.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply disappointed" by the Suu Kyi verdict, while UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said she deplored "the ongoing persecution of a democratically elected leader".

26/11 terrorists came from Karachi, says FBI

MUMBAI: A senior Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) official deposed in the 26/11 terror trial on Wednesday and laid bare Pakistan's
connection in the attack. The FBI forensic expert said that the GPS devices he had examined, stored a route from Karachi to Mumbai and back. This the first time that an FBI official has deposed in a terror trial in India.

"The GPS devices reflected way points and a route from the Gulf of Karachi to Mumbai and several points in between. The points were named by the users as JALA 1 (off Karachi) to JALA 4 (Mumbai),'' said the FBI official who had examined and analysed five GPS devices and a satellite phone recovered from the terrorists after the attack last year that killed 166 persons, including six Americans.

The FBI man, sporting a short salt-and-pepper crop and a beige suit, stepped inside the witness box in special judge M L Tahaliyani's high-security court opposite Kasturba hospital. He stood directly opposite Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving Pakistani gunman facing trial, swore solemnly to speak only the truth and answered questions posed by special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam. He was also cross-examined by Kasab's lawyer Abbas Kazmi. A team of six FBI men were in

the court.

The FBI testimony establishes the Pakistani connection in the conspiracy and its execution, said Nikam. An FBI man since 1992, said two of the GPS "specimens'' came with the data deleted, but he examined the others with "software created by the FBI team as well as the software that comes with these systems.'' Some were recovered from Kasab who, dressed in a white kurta, smiled and even laughed at times as the testimony progressed.

Judge Tahaliyani asked the witness, "I want to know what is JALA 1?'' "It is a name of the waypoint given by the user programmer. Jala 1 is off the gulf of Karachi and Jala 4 is the end point in Mumbai,'' the FBI expert said and also noted that the maps and lists he derived showed a return "trackback'' route which "is saved by the GPS automatically.'' There was a route stored in the GPS from Ocean 1 (off the coast of Pakistan) - Ocean A (Mumbai) - which was a trackback route.

A Thuraya satellite phone used by the terrorists to make and receive calls was also analysed and its data "transcribed physically by hand'', the witness said adding that it had four stored telephone numbers. Nikam said the numbers were still under investigation.

Nikam also got the FBI witness to point out the internal locations of Mumbai on the GPS seized from the Taj hotel attack to show that the terrorists had used the devices to manoeuver their way to Nariman House from Badhwar Park. The FBI witness, however, said that he could only tell the latitude and longitude and not the specific Mumbai locations.

Nikam also pointed out the points off Rawalpindi in one map to indicate that the terrorists were first given GPS training "locally''.

Kazmi asked a few questions including if the record was tampered only to help Mumbai police. "No, this was the data recovered from the devices,'' the FBI agent almost smiled. Later Kazmi said, "It was only a technical evidence, by one police trying to help.''