At least eight passengers sustained injuries, with two among them in critical condition, when two buggies of a passenger train derailed following a head-on collision with another passenger train in Lalmonirhat on Monday.
A four-member probe committee has been formed in the incident.
After the derailment, rail communications on the Lalmonirhat-Burimari route came to a halt.
The accident that happened at about 2:00pm also caused huge traffic congestion in Lalmonirhat
municipal town for several hours.
Railway authorities and local people said that the collision happened when the Lalmoni Express train was being headed to the wash pit outside the Lalmonirhat railway station.
At the time, Parbatipur-bound commuter train Number 66 coming from Burimari hit the express train in the BDR Gate area in the town.
The collision caused two air-conditioned buggies of the express train to derail, injuring at least eight passengers of the commuter train.
Lalmonirhat Railway station master Nur Nabi said that six of the injured were released after primary medical treatment, while two critically injured were admitted to Lalmonirhat Sadar Hospital.
Upon receiving information about the incident, the fire service and the army quickly reached the spot and started a rescue operation.
In this incident, train services on the Lalmonirhat-Burimari railway line were suspended till filling of this report at 6:30pm as the rescue operation was ongoing, said the station master.
Road traffic from Mission Crossing in Lalmonirhat municipality via BDR Gate also remained suspended till the evening, causing terrible suffering to the town鈥檚 residents.
The incident has raised questions among the local people about the railway鈥檚 signalling system and safety management.
Lalmonirhat Railway Police officer-in-charge Mamun Hasan confirmed the incident, saying that what exactly caused the accident could be known only through an investigation.
