The 56 returnees of Hojai district, who fled midway on the wee hours of Wednesday morning by pulling the chain of the Shramik Special train they were travelling in, were intercepted by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police Force (GRPF) personnel.
The train was on its way to Dibrugarh from Mumbai.
“Within minutes of pulling the chain, RPF and GRPF got the information in their walkie-talkies,” said a GRPF official.
“We reached the spot and found some passenger de-boarding from the train. We took them into our custody and brought them to the Hojai railway station,” the official added.
After preliminary screening, 37 of them were sent to a Daboka quarantine centre, 17 to a Lanka quarantine centre and 2 were sent to a quarantine centre in Hojai.
Of the 56 passengers, 31 are of Murajhar, 16 from Lanka, 2 from Jamunamukh, 2 from Hojai, 4 from Daboka and 1 is of Kheroni in Karbi Anglong district.