Darbhanga blast exposes loopholes at the Secunderabad railway station

HYDERABAD: The Darbhanga blast incident in Bihar had exposed the security loopholes at the Secunderabad railway station. There is no scanner to know the products which are being accepted at the parcel counter.
As of now only passenger entry points have baggage scanners in Secunderabad. Until the blast took place at Darbhanga railway station on June 17, none in the railways knew that an explosive parcel was accepted and later transported to Darbhanga.
At the Secunderabad station, there is no facility to know what is being accepted at the parcel office. When contacted, South Central Railway (SCR) officials admitted that there is no scanner at the parcel office, but clarified that there are four CCTVs at the office and all are in working condition. “It is incorrect that we got the proposal two years ago. It was received recently and it is under consideration. The reassessment will be done and then the CCTVs will be added. The proposal was sent for less than 100 CCTVs,’’ concerned SCR officials said.
On June 15, two persons came to Secunderabad Railway station in a taxi and went to parcel office and booked a consignment as garments. The persons who booked the parcels allegedly used fake IDs. Inside the garments, a bottle filled with liquid explosives was arranged and this went unnoticed by the parcel office officials and it reached Bihar and when it was unloaded at Darbhanga railway station, it exploded. Two brothers from Mehdipatnam under Asif Nagar police station limits were already taken into custody by the counter intelligence sleuths of Telangana police based on the CCTV footage and questioning is being done. It is learnt that a NIA team from Delhi is also in the city.