Gaurav Sawant has reported that the recent slew of train accidents were caused not by safety issues but by planned sabotage. Calling the recent number of accidents as ‘abnormally high’, railway officials have pointed out to the India Today journalist that most crashes have been outside ‘traditionally’ sensitive regions as such Maoist belts or the North East.

Instances where massive boulder brought from far away being placed on tracks, gelatin sticks being discovered have all been referred to the National Investigative Agency. Three suspects had been arrested in Bihar’s East Champaran district for planting explosives on railway tracks. These arrests lead to identifying a ‘handler’ in Nepal who had financed the sabotage operations.

Further investigations helped intelligence two key operatives behind the sabotage activities: Shafi Sheikh and Shamsul Hoda. The latter had been tracked by agencies to Dubai. A telephone call during which Hoda discussed rail sabotage activities has also been intercepted, India Today reports. Hoda has been deported to Nepal for murdering two individuals. He had paid these individuals for carrying out sabotage of railway lines but ended up killing them for lack of cooperation.

While the Indian Railways saw 45 instances of sabotage in 2016 the number has already hit 16 cases in just 40 days of 2017.