District police on Thursday awarded Tajul Islam who saved an intercity train with 500 passengers on board from a possible accident in Shahrasti upazila on Wednesday.
Tajul, a sexagenarian farmer hailing from Paschim Upalata village in the upazila, was given Tk 20,000 in cash and a testimonial at a ceremony at the office of police super M Amir.
Railway sources said miscreants removed fish plates in a 60-foot stretch of rail tracks at Upalata near Meher Railway Station on Wednesday night during the 71-hour rail-road-waterway blockade enforced by the BNP-led 18-party alliance.
The incident came to the notice of Tajul when he set out for work after saying his Fazr prayers.
Showing the presence of mind, he rushed to his house and fetched a red petticoat of his wife.
Later, he started waving the cloth after tying it with a stick when he was the Chittagong-bound ‘Meghna Express’ train approaching the damaged trail tracks.
The drivers of the train noticed the red cloth and immediately stopped the train before it reached the damaged tracks, thus saving it from a massive accident.
Meanwhile, the railways and communications ministers called Tajul to the capital and he left for the capital on Thursday night.
Source: UNBConnect
