In the early hours of November 20th last year, train number 19321 going from Indore to Patna had derailed near Kanpur, but the cause remained unclear. The railway authorities first suspected a possible rail fracture behind the accident, which took lives of around 150 people.
But in an alarming twist, the Bihar police on 17th January this year claimed that the accident was a result of a sabotage attempt by the Pakistan’s ISI.
In the days to come, the ISI angle gained more credence and Shafi Sheikh, a known ISI agent and a kingpin of Pakistan’s fake Indian currency notes (FICN) operation emerged as the mastermind of the whole affair. Sheikh allegedly hatched the conspiracy after the ISI’s fake note business was dealt a severe blow due to demonetization. He reportedly took the help of an ISI agent Shamshul Hoda, who in turn contacted Nepali criminal Brij Kishore Giri for targeting Indian railways by placing explosives on the tracks.
Shamshul Hoda was recently arrested in Nepal, but Shafi Sheikh, the main piece in the puzzle, was still beyond the reach of the authorities. As it turns out, Sheikh all these days was based in Dubai, but before the Indian authorities could request extradition to UAE, he had fled to Pakistan.
It was also reported that Sheikh had hatched the whole sabotage conspiracy while sitting in Karachi, as was revealed by the arrested Shamshul Hoda. Hoda claimed that he had visited Karachi months back before the incident on Sheikh’s invitation, stayed there for a couple of days, met 3 other people and was asked to tap into his Indian contacts to create trouble in the country.
This is just the latest instance of Pakistan harboring persons accused of terror and criminal activities in India. The most famous example being Dawood Ibrahim who has reportedly been enjoying the hospitality of the Pakistani establishment by continuing to live in Karachi unabated.