UP polls | PM Modi plays ISI card in Gonda, says Kanpur train mishap was cross-border conspiracy; asks voters to elect 'patriotic' govt

Invoking the Kanpur train mishap which had left 150 people dead, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said in Gonda that the tragedy was a cross-border conspiracy and urged the voters to elect ‘patriotic government’ in Uttar Pradesh. PM Modi said that the perpetrators carried out the Kanpur train mishap ‘sitting across the border’ in Nepal.

PM Modi was addressing an election rally in Uttar Pradesh’ Gonda district, which is close to the Indo-Nepal border. He touched upon the derailment of 14 coaches of the Indore-Patna Express near Pukhraya in Kanpur Dehat district on November 20, and said the findings showed it was a “conspiracy”.

“The Kanpur rail accident in which hundreds of people were killed was a conspiracy and conspirators carried it out sitting across the border... Gonda is adjoining Nepal,” he said.

“If the cross-border foes want to carry out their work, is it not necessary that more vigil is maintained in Gonda,” Modi asked people as he exhorted them to vote for the BJP.

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“Gonda needs to elect only those who are full of patriotism, only then we can do anything good for Gonda,” he said.

“There should not be any mistake in this election... be it the SP or the BSP, not a single seat should go to them...  100 per cent seats should be won by the BJP,” the Prime Minister said.

On February 7, Nepalese national Shamshul Hoda, an alleged ISI agent and the prime suspect in the Kanpur train tragedy, was arrested in Kathmandu after being deported from Dubai, Nepal police had said.

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After the November train tragedy, at least 62 passengers were injured on December 28 when 15 coaches of the Sealdah-Ajmer Express derailed while it was crossing a bridge near Rura Railway Station in Kanpur Rural district.

(With inputs from PTI)