NEW DELHI, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Indian police have said that Tuesday's explosion on a train in the central state of Madhya Pradesh that wounded 10 people, was a terror attack.
Inspector General of Madhya Pradesh Police Makrand Devaskar told the media Tuesday night that the train incident was an improvised explosive device blast. "It was a terror attack and three persons have been arrested in connection with it," he said.
His version has been corroborated by police in the neighboring northern state of Uttar Pradesh, who shot a terror suspect dead in a house on the outskirts of state capital Lucknow in the wee hours of Wednesday after a 12-hour gunbattle.
According to cops, the suspect, identified as Saifullah, was an active member of terror group Islamic State and was believed to be involved in Madhya Pradesh train blast. The bomb used in the explosion was allegedly assembled in the house, they said.
"The slain terror suspect belongs to the Khurasan module of the Islamic State and was an active member. Whether he has been indoctrinated or not is a matter of investigation," senior anti-terror squad officer Aseem Arun said.
Eight pistols, 650 rounds of ammunition, 50 fired rounds, explosives, gold, cash, fake passports, mobile SIM cards and a train time table were found along with the body.
The blast took place in a coach of 59320 Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train in Madhya Pradesh's Shajapur district around 10 a.m. (local time) Tuesday, following which the train came to a halt. Two coaches were damaged, and were separated from the train which later left for its onward journey.
Some 10 people sustained splinter injuries in the blast and are currently undergoing treatment at a state-run hospital, where the condition of two are said to be serious, a Railways official said.
The state-run Indian Railways, the third largest network in the world, operates more than 12,000 passenger trains, carrying some 23 million people daily. But its safety record is not good as much of the railway equipment is out of date.
In 2015, the government announced investments of 137 billion U.S. dollars over five years to modernise and expand the ailing railways.
