ISI agent Shamshul Huda, mastermind of Kanpur train derailment, arrested in Nepal

NEW DELHI: The apprehension of Nepalese criminal and aspiring politician Shamshul Hoda has laid bare the ISI links to a plan to cause derailment of trains in India with Hoda being hosted at a safe house in Karachi a year ago.Wanted for an attempt to cause derailment in Bihar's East Champaran district by blowing up rail tracks, Hoda's travel and stay in Pakistan was arranged by a conduit, a known Pakistani fake Indian currency supplier Safi Shaikh.A NIA official said ISI facilitated Hoda's travel from Dubai to Pakistan in early 2016, with his visa application being cleared in a matter of minutes and Safi sponsoring the air tickets.NIA sources said Safi Shaikh, who also goes by the name of Safi Chacha (Safi uncle), has emerged as a key element in the ISI-backed conspiracy to cause high-casualty train accidents in India through sabotage.Shaikh, who had earlier used Hoda to transport FICN into India in 2013-14 while the latter was based in Dubai, persuaded the Nepalese citizen to travel to Pakistan in 2015-16 for a direct interaction with ISI bosses over alleged plans to cause large-scale deaths in India by "engineering stampedes, derailments, riots or attacking government installations".The ISI bosses are said to have promised Hoda "huge sums of money" to execute incidents of sabotage in India, leading to mass killings. Later, a sum of Rs 8-9 lakh was transferred by Safi from Dubai to Hoda's Himalayan Bank account in Birganj, Nepal. The NIA has the papers relating to the money transfer.Safi Chacha is already wanted in a 2014 NIA case relating to an FICN consignment of Rs 50 lakh sent to India via Dubai through Ekramul Ansari, a resident of East Champaran. Interestingly, that consignment of Rs 50 lakh had also gone to Ghorasahan in Bihar, where an attempt was made to trigger a blast.