A terror scare on the Amritsar–Visakhapatnam Hirakund Express on Sunday turned out to be nothing more than a fight over seats, officials told PTI.
Railway SP Vipul Kumar Srivastava said the RPF control room received a message claiming that “suspected terrorists” were travelling on train number 20808. The alert came from Datia station in Madhya Pradesh, where RPF staff and local police had removed four passengers after an argument in the general compartment.
During the inquiry, officials found that the dispute had nothing to do with terrorism. It began when a passenger named Ramesh Paswan, who was dressed as a sadhu, got into a quarrel with three Muslim co-passengers identified as H Bilal Jilani, Ishan or Izhan Khan, and Faizan, all from Jhansi, over seating arrangements. In anger, Paswan called the railway control room and falsely claimed that terrorists were in the compartment.
“It was a seating dispute. One passenger labelled the others as terrorists out of rage,” SP Srivastava said, according to PTI.
Police detained and questioned all four men. The train was halted and thoroughly searched, including the front general coach. Sniffer dogs were used at Datia and another round of checks was carried out at Jhansi. No suspicious items or persons were found.
After nearly 30 minutes, the train was cleared to leave Datia around 3:30 p.m. and continued its journey to Visakhapatnam. Officials said the false alert caused unnecessary panic but confirmed there was no security threat.
