Hindustan Times (Amritsar)

PM sees foreign hand in UP rail accident, experts mum

- Rajesh Ahuja and Manish Chandra Pandey letters@hindustant­imes.com

NEW DELHI/GONDA: Conspirato­rs from “across the border” were responsibl­e for a train derailment near Kanpur that killed 150 people and injured more than 200 last November, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday.

His remarks follow the arrest of four men in Nepal and Bihar this January, who had allegedly told police that the Pakistani spy agency, Inter Services Intelligen­ce, was behind the Kanpur accident — the worst train tragedy in the country in six years.

“It was a conspiracy and the conspirato­rs carried it out sitting across the border,” Modi said at a poll rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Gonda, which votes on February 27 in the fifth round of the seven-phase assembly elections in the state.

The government has asked the National Investigat­ion Agency (NIA) to ascertain the sabotage angle.

The agency has sought help from experts with IIT-Kanpur (IIT-K) to know the technical aspects of the accident.

The IIT team, which visited the site on Wednesday, will study the rail ministry’s report and look at the condition of the tracks, coaches, and speed of the train.

“We will take at least a month to submit our report to the NIA. As of now we are discussing the case among ourselves after the site visit,” said Sandeep Sangal, one of the experts. The team will submit its report after the state election results are declared on March 11.

The Indore-Patna Express jumped rails near Kanpur Dehat in Pukhrayan on November 21.

A rail accident happened in Kanpur... police found out that was a conspiracy from across the border. NARENDRA MODI, Prime Minister

A previous technical assessment available with the NIA shows the train was travelling at 106 kmph but came to a complete halt within 14 seconds. Of the 23 coaches, seven derailed after its S-6 and S-7 compartmen­ts separated.

“There was a leakage of pressure vacuum because of the de-coupling, which triggered the brakes to clamp automatica­lly. The train halted within 193 metres of the de-coupling in 14 seconds, and that’s pretty quick,” an NIA official said.

“By comparison, the AjmerSeald­ah Express, which derailed on December 28 just 30km from the Patna-Indore train’s accident site, halted after travelling 550 metres.”

New Delhi has often accused Pakistani agencies of fomenting trouble in India through agents in Nepal, a charge denied by Islamabad.

The location of Gonda, along the India-Nepal border, probably prompted Prime Minister Modi to caution people about cross-border crime, underscori­ng the suspected foreign conspiracy in the Kanpur train tragedy.

“Gonda is adjoining Nepal ... Gonda needs to elect only those who are full of patriotism,” Modi said, asking people not to vote for those who help conspirato­rs. “There should be no mistake in elections, whether it is the SP or BSP, none of them should win.”

The Centre has also asked the anti-terrorism agency to investigat­e the recovery of an unexploded bomb from railway tracks near Ghorasahan in Bihar last October, and the derailment of Hirakund Express in Andhra Pradesh this year.

Modi asked people to vote for the BJP, saying only a strong government at the Centre as well as the state could curb cross-border crime.

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