As violence unfolded at the Secunderabad Railway Station on Friday, three mechanics of the railways aboard the Shalimar- Hyderabad East Coast train could not stop worrying about the 4,000 litres of diesel stored in the power car. As the protesters began smashing the glass of the locomotive, they scurried towards the security personnel and urged them to protect the generator car.
“We requested the RPF to save the generator car and they took swift action. There was 4,000 litres of diesel in it and if even by accident, the car were to catch fire, the whole place would have been engulfed in flames. It would have been very difficult to douse the flames. We had to get down and disconnect the car from the other coaches,” Ram Pyare Puri, an AC mechanic aboard the train, said, adding that the other mechanics Suman Kumar Sharma and Albert Barla also got down to decouple the bogie. Two other loco engines had 3,000 litres transformer oil.
Mr Barla said they were holed up in the generator car for at least half hour to protect it.
Recalling how the violence unfolded, Mr Barla said around 8.40 am, protesters managed to stop the locomotive. They allegedly assaulted the driver, and smashed the glass. They then vandalised the parcel car. Later, using whatever they could find, they began to smash the windows of the remaining coaches.
“As soon as they became violent, we told the passengers to immediately get off the train. We tried our best to ensure that passengers left unharmed. They are our Allah, Khuda, Bhagwan and God. They are everything for us. We had no idea that this (violence) would happen,” Mr Sharma, the power car mechanic, said.
