NIA visits Bihar to probe Kanpur train derailment

An NIA team reached Bihar's Motihari district on Wednesday to investigate the alleged role of Pakistan's ISI behind the Indore-Patna Express train derailment near Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur that claimed over 100 lives.

On Tuesday, Bihar Police arrested three people -- identified as Moti Paswan, Umashankar Prasad and Mukesh Yadav -- for their alleged role in the November 2016 train derailment and claimed to have found evidence linking them to ISI.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) team led by a Deputy Inspector General (DIG) -rank officer will interrogate the three criminals.

Paswan confessed that he was paid to plant explosives in the train and that the ISI had executed the whole derailment plan.

He has told the Bihar Police that the money he received came from a known ISI sympathiser, Dubai-based Shamshul Hodi.

Bihar Police said Paswan was involved in the train derailment along with some others, including Zubair and Ziaul, who have been arrested in Delhi.

Besides interrogating the three criminals, the NIA team would also look into the Bihar Police claim that the ISI has been using Nepal as a base to implement its terror activities in the state using hired criminals.

--IANS

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