The
Brahmaputra Mail
The 15657 / 15658 ''Brahmaputra Mail'' is a daily train that connects Old Delhi with Kamakhya (an important town in Assam). Introduced in 1972 after the construction of the rail section of the Farakka Barrage, the train originally ran as the T ...
train bombing was a terrorist attack on a train travelling in
Western Assam in Eastern
India on 30 December 1996. The bomb totally wrecked three carriages of the train and derailed six more, killing at least 33 people.
The bomb was of unknown composition, and had been left next to a line of track between
Kokrajhar and
Fakiragram stations. It is likely the bomb was detonated by a remote control device, and timed to cause maximum destruction, as the ''Brahmaputra Mail'' passenger service to
New Delhi came past at high speed.
Official reports claimed that 33 people were killed in the explosion, but the remote region in which the blast occurred and government desires to minimize the impact of the attack has led some commentators to question this figure. Some have claimed that 100 fatalities is a more likely figure.
The Indian government blamed the attack on a local separatist organisation, the
Bodo Security Force, and although they have not admitted guilt.
See also
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List of terrorist incidents, 1996
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2014 Chennai train bombing
The 2014 Chennai train bombing is the explosion of two low-intensity bombs on the early hours of 1 May 2014, Thursday at Chennai Central railway station. The Bangalore–Guwahati Kaziranga Superfast Express which came from Bangalore and was g ...
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2006 Mumbai train bombings
The 2006 Mumbai train bombings were a series of seven bomb blasts on 11 July. They took place over a period of 11 minutes on the Suburban Railway in Mumbai, the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the nation's financial capital ...
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Jnaneswari Express train derailment
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List of railway accidents and incidents in India
Railway accidents may be classified by their effects, e.g.: head-on collisions, rear-end collisions, side collisions, derailments, fires, explosions, etc. They may alternatively be classified by cause, e.g.: driver and signalman error; mechani ...
References
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External links
Short piece on the bombing
Explosions in 1996
Mass murder in 1996
Railway accidents in 1996
Terrorist incidents in India in 1996
December 1996 events in Asia
December 1996 crimes
1990s in Assam
Terrorism in Assam
Gowda administration
Train bombings in Asia
Improvised explosive device bombings in India
Railway accidents and incidents in Assam
Rail transport in Assam
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