Kanpur train accident: prime suspect Shamsul Hoda, an alleged ISI agent, was arrested in Nepal
Shamsul Hoda, the alleged mastermind of a series of train accidents in India allegedly caused by explosives on tracks, has been arrested in Nepal. He has allegedly confessed that he was working for the Pakistani ISI or Inter-Services Intelligence and his job was to "spread terror" in India.
Shamsul Hoda was arrested for murders in Nepal but he is wanted in India for terror. He is believed to have put out "suparis" or contracts for train accidents in which coaches were derailed, leading to multiple deaths. India's top anti-terror body, the National investigation Agency (NIA), suspects that he is the main link in the derailments.
The most recent incident for which he is being investigated is the
train accident in Kanpur in November in which 14 coaches of the Indore-Patna Express rolled off the tracks, killing 150 people.
On Shamsul Hoda's orders,
bombs were allegedly planted on the track which the Indore-Patna Express was to take, and gas cutters were used to damage it.
The NIA believes he can help establish the
ISI's role in all recent train accidents.
Shamsul Hoda's role was allegedly corroborated by three men arrested in Bihar last month - Moti Paswan, Uma Shankar Patel and Mukesh Yadav.
They were arrested over the murder of two young men in Bihar's Motihari.
One of the arrested men has told the police that Shamsul ordered the murders because the two men failed to carry out a train track explosion in Ghorasan in October.