A 22-year-old train commuter suffered facial injuries after being hit by a stone while travelling on a Transharbour local, near Airoli station on Thursday afternoon.
Shafique Sayyed, a Bhandup resident, was on his way to a job interview in Vashi, with a friend. They had boarded the 2pm Vashi local from Thane station and were on the footboard in the general compartment. The train had barely reached Digha when Sayyed screamed and sat down, his face bleeding profusely. His friend told the police Sayyed was hit by a stone.
To make matters worse, when they alighted at Airoli station to seek help, the station was ill-equipped to handle the situation. The duo, along with a media professional from Badlapur then alerted the station’s railway police team, which immediately rushed him to the Lifeline Hospital in Airoli and then took him to the Thane civil hospital. Later, the victim’s relatives moved him to a private hospital in Mumbai for further treatment. Attempts to contact the family proved futile.
Activists complain there has been a rise in such stone-throwing incidents, done in order to target passengers and snatch their valuables in this part of the suburbs.