The Indian Railways is grappling with a massive sabotage for the last one and a half year making it vulnerable for optimum functioning of the passenger and freight train operations. It face risks from LPG cylinder on railway tracks, iron rods, huge boulders and concrete slabs and tree trunks which could have led major accidents.
Sources said Centre has asked all stakeholders including the States to be extra vigilant to thwart the nefarious designs of those involved to destabilise the railways particularly in a compact zone comprising parts of Central Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Investigations at top level is also being done about the pattern of such activities which began with bomb threats at schools followed by similar hoax in the shopping malls and now the railways.
Pakistan-based terror mastermind Farhatullah Ghori who was behind the 2002 Akshardham temple attack and Bengaluru’s Rameshwaram Cafe blast, had released a video message to terror sleeper cells in India, urging them to carry out attacks on trains, petroleum pipelines, and Hindu Leaders. The recent train accidents have also been investigated from this angle.
With yet another attempt to derail the trains on Tuesday near Ajmer in Rajasthan, total number of sabotage on railway tracks since August 2024 against which cases have been registered are 18 while probe on 28 such serious sabotage angle cases since June 2023 are still going on. Some of these cases are being probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and CBI.
This marks the third attempt to derail a train in Rajasthan in recent weeks. Previously, on August 28, scrap metal was thrown on a goods train track in Chhabra Baran, and on August 23, a train collided with a cement block on the Ahmedabad-Jodhpur Vande Bharat track at Pali.
On Monday, an attempt to derail the Bhiwani-Prayagraj Kalindi Express was made in Kanpur by placing an LPG cylinder on tracks, along with a bottle of petrol and matchboxes. Earlier, a bid was made to derail the Ahmedabad-Jodhpur Vande Bharat Express in Rajasthan’s Pali district.
NIA team has joined the ongoing probe in Kanpur. Kanpur Police has detained six people, including two local history-sheeters, in connection with the case and decided to form a Special Investigation Team and will study if there are any similarities with the recent Sabarmati Express derailment in Kanpur.
“Senior officers are looking into things seriously. Whatever facts come to light, shall be shared,” Uttar Pradesh DGP Prashant Kumar told The Pioneer.
This is not the first time but a similar pattern was noticed when there was an exceptional jump in “sabotage” cases with around 18 incidents reported in December 2017.
The then Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had written to Home Minister Rajnath Singh seeking a detailed investigation by the NIA into the mishaps as the listed incidents with “possibility of criminal interference by outsiders”.
Delhi Police recently arrested about 14 people of ISIS from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi. Further, the investigating agencies have collected footage from 219 cameras and questioned over 100 individuals in connection with the Kanpur train derailment attempt.
