Railway unions stop local trains at CSMT to oppose FIR against engineers in accident case
Mumbai (PTI): Unions representing Central Railway’s employees stopped suburban local train operations at the busy Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus for nearly an hour on Thursday evening to oppose the FIR against engineers in the Mumbra accident case.
Train services resumed after senior officials assured the protesters they would pursue the matter with the state authorities.
Central Railway’s Chief Public Relations Officer Swapnil Nila told PTI that the employees protesting at CSMT, where daily passenger footfall touches several lakhs, did not allow motormen and train managers to operate trains between 5.50 pm and 6.45 pm.
The protesters were pacified and local train services resumed after about an hour, said Nila.
The Government Railway Police have registered an FIR against two railway engineers in the June 9 Mumbra train accident, which claimed five lives.
The GRP action prompted National Railway Mazdoor Union and Central Railway Mazdoor Union to stage the protest on Thursday, demanding the FIR be revoked.
The NRMU staged a protest outside the Divisional Railway Manager's office at CSMT after a march, while CRMS staged protest in the suburban concourse of the busy station, just outside the motormen and train managers or guards lobby.
The employees participating in the protest shouted slogans against the police and warned of action if the case is not withdrawn.
Many daily wage labours of railway contractors also participated in the protest, several of them wearing reflective safety jackets.
Non availability of suburban services during evening peak hours led to heavy rush on both mainline and harbour corridors of Central Railway.
Commuters filled the CSMT premises as they waited for train services to resume. Major stations including Kurla, Ghatkopar, Dadar, Thane, and Vashi witnessed heavy rush of passengers.
Several passengers travelled onboard outstation trains due to heavy rush and disrupted suburban services. Some rushed to the Metro-3 station in the vicinity.
“A friend from the UK is here, and we wanted to board a local train. We came out of the CSMT after waiting for trains to start for nearly 20 minutes,” said Thane resident Anshuman R.
Passenger activists strongly condemned the stoppage of suburban trains.
They accused railway authorities of holding passengers to ransom to pressure the GRP into scrapping the FIR.
The probe into the June 9 Mumbra train accident, which claimed five lives, has found that railway staffers replaced a piece of track four days prior to it, but left it unwelded, which resulted in the tragedy.
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South African police arrest suspect in mass shooting that killed 12, including 3 children
Johannesburg (AP): A 32-year-old suspect has been arrested in connection with a mass shooting which claimed the lives of 12 people including three children at an unlicensed pub earlier this month, South African police said on Monday.
The man is suspected of being one of the three people who opened fire on patrons in a pub at Saulsville township, west of South Africa's capital Pretoria, killing 12 people including three children aged 3, 12 and 16.
At least 13 people were also injured during the attack, whose motive remains unknown.
According to the police, the suspect was arrested on Sunday while traveling to Botlokwa in Limpopo province, more than 340 km from where the mass shooting took place on Dec 6.
An unlicensed firearm believed to have been used during the attack was recovered from the suspect's vehicle.
“The 32-year-old suspect was intercepted by Limpopo Tracking Team on the R101 Road in Westenburg precinct. During the arrest, the team recovered an unlicensed firearm, a hand gun, believed to have been used in the commission of the multiple murders. The firearm will be taken to the Forensic Science Laboratory for ballistic analysis,” police said in statement.
The suspect was arrested on the same day that another mass shooting at a pub took place in the Bekkersdal township, west of Johannesburg, in which nine people were killed and 10 wounded when unknown gunmen opened fire on patrons.
Police have since launched a search for the suspects.
South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world and recorded more than 26,000 homicides in 2024 — an average of more than 70 a day. Firearms are by far the leading cause of death in homicides.
The country of 62 million people has relatively strict gun ownership laws, but many killings are committed with illegal guns, according to authorities.
According to police, mass shootings at unlicensed bars are becoming a serious problem. Police shut down more than 11,000 illegal taverns between April and September this year and arrested more than 18,000 people for involvement in illegal liquor sales.
