Baffled over Maoists removing fish plates along 400 metres of railway tracks near Gidhni in West Midnapore today, the Trinamool chief said Maoists are fighting like cowards and targeting the railways.

“Sabotaging trains, killing people is fighting like cowards,” she said adding if they have any grudge against her, they can give her the time and place and she will be there to face them.

The minister said if the railways patrol team of gangmen had not spotted it, many people would have died today.

“Today I am the Railway Minister... tomorrow I may not be. This is not my personal property... this is the property of the country,” the railway minister said.

This is the second major incident in which Maoists in West Bengal have chosen to target the railways. In the first one, Delhi-bound Bhubhaneswar Rajdhani Express with 667 passengers was held hostage on October 27 by the People’s Committee against Police Atrocities (PCAPA), a Maoist-backed outfit, for nearly four hours near Jhargram in West Midnapore.