Three train derailments in as many months claiming nearly 200 lives can’t be accidents due to technical failure. Though unfortunate the accidents have a common trait snapping of some portion of rails which is blamed on the fatigue of the track and the extreme cold prevailing in plains of central and northern India. Or is it that there is some agency working nefariously to cause damage to the country especially when elections are due? Or is it the notorious Pakistan intelligence agency ISI’s hands behind all the three mishaps claiming hundereds of lives? Nepal Police has arrested a Nepal based ISI operative Mujhahir Ansari, who revealed that the plot to derail trains was hatched after the surgical strikes carried out by India in September 2016. Ansari told the Nepal Police that they were instructed by their module boss Shamshul Huda to avenge the strikes. Ansari’s interrogation has corroborated what Moti Paswan told Bihar Police – that the first target was the railway track at Ghorasan near Motihari. After this plan failed when villagers detected the pressure cooker bomb on the tracks, they decided to target the Indore-Patna Express by removing the fish plates on the tracks. Nepal has long been a base for ISI, who take advantage of the porous Indo-Nepal border; underworld criminal Dawood Ibrahim also has a strong network there. IM terrorist Yasin Bhatkal was arrested on the Indo-Nepal border near Motihari, Bihar; LeT’s Abdul Karim Tunda was arrested in Uttarakhand’s Banbasa area close to the Nepal border. Train accidents are unfortunately not new, but what is new is the unravelling conspiracy to sabotage railway tracks to derail trains and kill innocent civilians so frequently. The coming of a strong, nationalist government in 2014 has put these enemy forces on the backfoot after the ease with which they were operating during the 2004-14 period, and it appears that they have opted to utilise their deep networks within Bharat to hit at soft targets like unguarded railway tracks in remote corners.
