In the Darbhanga railway station blast case, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has finally filed a charge sheet against five alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operators. Five alleged LeT operatives named Mohd Nasir Khan alias Nasir Malik, Imran Malik, Saleem Ahmed alias Haji Saleem alias Haji, Kafil Ahmad alias Kafil, and Iqbal Mohammed alias Md Iqbal alias Hafeez Iqbal alias Iqbal Kana alias Kana, all of Shamli district in Uttar Pradesh, were named in a statement released by the central agency. The statement further mentioned that Md Iqbal is currently hiding in Lahore, Pakistan.
What happened in Darbhanga?
The investigation revolves around an explosion that occurred on June 17 at the Darbhanga railway station in Bihar, in which no one was wounded. A parcel that had been booked in Secunderabad was conveyed on the Secunderabad-Darbhanga Express and detonated on a Darbhanga railway station platform. A week later, the NIA reopened the inquiry and discovered that the claimed LeT operatives had planned to set fire to a moving long-distance railway by planting incendiary improvised explosive devices (IEDs)/parcel bombs within the train, resulting in the deaths of passengers and property damage.
The official statement from the NIA read, "In order to execute the task, on directions of Pakistan-based LeT operative Hafeez Iqbal @ Iqbal Kana, accused Mohd Nasir Khan and Imran Malik fabricated an IED using locally procured chemicals and placed the same in a parcel of clothes."
NIA further said that the parcel "was booked in Secunderabad-Darbhanga Express which departs in the night with an intention that on triggering of the incendiary IED, the cloth parcel would ignite and further spread fire in other parcels booked in the van converting it into a large conflagration".
Under sections 120B, 468, and 471 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Sections 3, 4, and 5 of the Explosive Substances Act, 1908, and sections 16, 17, 18, 18B, 20, 23, 38, 39, and 40 of the UA(P) Act, the charge sheet was submitted at the NIA special court in Patna.
