Stone Pelting on Cox's Bazar Express: Passenger Injured, Raising Railway Security Concerns

On Saturday afternoon, panic gripped passengers of the Dhaka-bound Cox's Bazar Express when a stone thrown from outside struck a passenger near Lohagara in Chittagong. The victim, Shahin Ahmad, a chief assistant at the Uttara Tax Office in Dhaka, was returning from an anti-drug campaign in Cox's Bazar. The impact caused severe head injuries and profuse bleeding, creating an emergency situation inside the compartment. With initial first-aid attempts failing to stop the bleeding, train officials resorted to the public address system to search for onboard medical professionals.

This was not an isolated incident during the journey, as the train had already been targeted earlier near the Ramu-Islamabad area. In that first attack, a window pane was shattered, though fortunately, no casualties were reported. Stone pelting has long been a chronic hazard for Bangladesh Railways, frequently endangering lives and damaging expensive rolling stock. Despite the introduction of modern, high-speed trains to boost tourism and connectivity, the lack of secure corridors along the tracks leaves these national assets highly vulnerable to vandalism.

Following the urgent PA announcement, a senior surgeon and several other doctors traveling on the train rushed to assist the injured passenger. Upon their recommendation to hospitalize him immediately, the non-stop train made an unscheduled stop at Boalkhali to transfer Shahin to a local hospital. While the Railway Police and local administration have launched an investigation, identifying and prosecuting perpetrators in such open-track incidents remains a significant challenge. Authorities have promised increased patrolling, but historical data shows that very few culprits are ever brought to justice for these acts.

The recurring menace of stone-throwing on moving trains exposes a critical gap in the state's railway security architecture. Merely deploying police on trains is insufficient; the authorities must invest in modern surveillance, including drone monitoring and CCTV cameras at vulnerable hotspots. Furthermore, strict enforcement of existing laws and community-level awareness campaigns in track-adjacent neighborhoods are vital to ending this dangerous practice. Safeguarding passengers must be treated as a national priority to maintain public trust in the country's expanding rail network.