Commuters see no light at tunnel's end
The railway strike which was re launched by some unions was not without tragedy for some passengers where one lost his life, another's leg was amputated and yet another was injured. All this came in the midst of reports of alleged sabotage by some strikers who had allegedly damaged 17 engines.

Vidura Prasad a 28-year old employee of a private firm died when he fell off a severely overcrowded train at Angulana having missed his precarious hold. They said the incident had occurred on Friday morning soon after the strike was temporarily called off, but at a time when only a skeleton service was being operated, as at the time most of the engine drivers were yet to report to work.

The strike which was resumed later in the day continued throughout yesterday with no signs of it being settled soon. In another incident a youth had fallen off the train at Kelaniya and had to have his leg below the knee amputated.

In a separate incident a person identified as Maheshi Batuwatte who is employed at the Prime Minister's office had fallen off the train at Wanawasala but was lucky to have escaped with only a few bruises.

The unions which had earlier agitated against the creation of the Railway Authority are now also demanding that two station masters and a railway guard who were sacked on charges of corruption and malpractice but re-employed during the strike be removed.

Railway authorities said that they had no guarantee that services would return to normal by tomorrow.

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