Photojournalist's Diary from Assam on Indian Train Blast on 13th December 2007
By Subhamoy Bhattacharjee
13 Dec 2007
Guwahati-Assam-India
13th December 2007
9 pm
The first call I got from a photographer friend who is at a local pub with a few journalists in the city around 2 A.M.
"Some thing has happen in Rajdhani Express, May be a bomb blast"
All on a sudden, the call changed my mind set and I started to confirm with my contacts in North East Frontier Railway (A Division of Indian Railway) along with a few media friends at night.
We came to a preliminary conclusion that it was a bomb blast occurred some time around 1 to 2 am while the prime train was passing through the forest range of Bokajan in Golaghat district of Assam.
It's about five hour's journey from Guwahati, my home place. Foggy winter night. No clear idea of causality and damage; with this much detail I was in a fix to move to the actual blast site, traveling all the way with no idea what to get there to shoot (News Picture)
Decided to wait till sun rise. At the same time keep on cross checking with fellow colleagues too. The night passed on.
Five (5) people died, four (4) were seriously injured. One parcel compartment of the train, just behind the Engine with a few reserved seats was damaged in the blast. Rescue team already reached there in Chongajan area in Golaghat where the train is halted after the blast- that's already in news.
The train started from Dibrugarh Railway Station of upper Assam to wards Guwahati to get connected to main Rajdhani Express to move to Delhi, the capital, city of India. As per media report, suspected militant outfit was involved in it, though no one claimed responsibility till then.
The only option I had to meet my editorial desk in time along with BBC online story is to get the images of reaction of the Guwahati bound passengers, who will get down at Guwahati railway station. I did that. Got some passenger's reaction pics, which can go with incident reporting in time being far away from the actual site.
After covering the reaction, immediately moved to my own small office at home. Uploaded the pictures and immediately it got published with due attention on BBC online with the story. Though the images are not so strong, but that time it's the only option to meet the online readers.
The two pictures carried in BBC online service with the story much before the other international agencies.
The job which was started at mid night ended in afternoon, with hectic rounds of facts and findings, but at last when it got published on time it's the ultimate satisfaction
BBC LINK:
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