Attack on railways increase, 18 ‘sabotage attempts’ made in last 40 days: Suresh Prabhu

A major rail accident was recently averted causing major concern relating to the train operations. Deliberate attempts are being made to cause mishaps.

By: News Desk |
February 9, 2017 4:52 pm

In a shocking revelation, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu recently revealed that in less than 40 days, the railways has seen an increase of 18 attempts of deliberate attempts to cause rail mishaps which is a major cause of concern for the railway department.

A massive rail accident was prevented recently in the Mansi area of Bihar. According to several media reports, the locals informed the railway officials that fishplates, a flat piece of metal used to connect adjacent rails in a railway track and join vaults of the rail tracks were missing. Also, the villagers took cognisance of the situation just before Rajdhani Express travelling from New Delhi was all set to pass the area.

This incident, Suresh Prabhu noted was the 18th “Sabotage” incident. Times of India reported that sabotage attempts that were made unsuccessful by the rail authorities include, boulders, concrete slabs, stones being stationed at the rail tracks that could possibly cause a derailment.

While speaking in the lower house of the parliament, Suresh Prabhu expressed worry over the “unusual” man-made activities happening on the railway tracks while adding that there were 7 “blast attempts” as well.

Earlier this week, Shamshul Hoda, the main suspect of Kanpur train derailment, that claimed lives of more than 150, was arrested at Kathmandu Airport in Nepal. He was held by Nepal police and Indian Inteligence Agency in a joint operation. Hoda is also suspected to be an ISI operative. NIA sources asserted that, “Nepal police and Indian agency arrested Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agent Shamshul Hoda, who has links with Kanpur train blast.”

Bihar police was probing whether the November 21 Kanpur train derailment that killed 150 people was an act of sabotage with possible ties to Pakistani spy agency ISI.

A CBI probe had been initiated by the Railways in connection with the accident that took place in Kanpur earlier in January. The probe had led to the theory that sabotage may be behind the accidents that took place in November and December as well.