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According to NIA, the accused persons intended to trigger blast during night hours
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday filed a charge sheet against five persons, alleging that the bomb blast at Bihar’s Darbhanga railway station on June 17 was carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists.Among those arraigned are Mohammed Nasir Khan and his brother Imran Malik, who are from Kairana in Uttar Pradesh’s Shamli and had been living in Hyderabad; Saleem Ahmed and Kafil Ahmad, also from Kairana; and Iqbal Kana, who also belongs to Shamli and has been operating from Lahore.The NIA probe revealed that the alleged LeT operatives had planned to set ablaze a moving long-distance train by planting an improvised explosive device (IED), which would lead to the death of a large number of passengers and damage public property.It is alleged that at the instance of Iqbal Kana, Nasir Khan and his brother configured the IED using locally procured chemicals and placed it in a parcel of clothes. On June 15, they booked the parcel at the Secunderabad railway office using a fake PAN card. The railway workers kept it in the Secunderabad-Darbhanga Express, which left the station at night.According to the NIA, the accused persons intended to trigger the blast during night hours. The fire caused by the explosion in the running train would have engulfed the sleeping passengers, causing maximum casualty. However, the bomb exploded after the parcel was offloaded at the Darbhanga railway station. No one was injured.
Travel to Pakistan
The NIA alleged that on Iqbal Kana’s instruction, Nasir Khan had travelled to Pakistan and undergone training in the handling of arms and ammunition and configuring IEDs. He also received funds from Pakistan on various occasions for executing the conspiracy. “After the incident, the Pakistan-based handlers tried to facilitate the escape of the accused persons abroad via Nepal. However, they were arrested,” said an official.As alleged, Saleem Ahmed also knew Iqbal Kana, who was initially into smuggling of fake Indian currency, as both were from the same village. The accused visited Pakistan several times during 1990-2005 to import garments and was earlier roped in by Iqbal Kana for smuggling forged currency.