The accused were arrested after a few months of the hijacking.
Train hijack: Tuesday, 11 March 2025, will go down in the annals of history marking the hijacking of a passenger train. The incident that took place on the day and date is certainly not a pleasant one but made big news at many places.
In our neighbourhood, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) hijacked a train with over 450 passengers on-board hostages. The hijacked train, the Jaffar Express, was on its way from Quetta in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province to Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa when the accident happened.
This brings us to the train hijacking incident on our own country.
India’s first incident of train hijacking occurred on February 6, 2013, in Durg, Chhattisgarh. The miscreants held the driver and passengers of the entire Jan Shatabdi train hostage for about one and a half kilometers. The gang took the driver and other staff hostage at gunpoint and asked the driver to take the train to another station.
The train was hijacked by the son of a notorious gangster to free his father Upendra. The mastermind behind the hijacking was Upendra’s son Pritam Singh alias Rajesh, who, executed the operation along with a group of henchmen.
Upendra was imprisoned in Bilaspur Central Jail and was brought to the Durg court for a criminal case hearing. During this time, Upendra Singh was in police custody.
After the court hearing was over, the police were returning Upendra to Bilaspur on the same train. To free Upendra, his son Pritam Singh conspired and hijacked the Jan Shatabdi Express running between Durg and Raigarh with a group of gangsters.
Pritam Singh was successful in freeing his gangster father from near Kumhari railway station adjacent to Raipur and fled with him.
However, a few months later, Upendra and most of the accused, including his son Pritam Singh, were caught.
