Twelve days after an explosion damaged a stretch of railway track near the Pakistan border, Rajasthan police say they have arrested two people from Punjab.
The explosion went off at about 9.45 pm on November 3 near Ramsinghpur, on the Anupgarh-Suratgarh line, close to 50 GB village in Sri Ganganagar district. It wrecked two to three concrete sleepers, exposed the iron bars inside, and left a crater roughly two to three feet deep. Nobody was injured.
A passenger train had passed over the same stretch roughly 75 minutes earlier. Investigators told India Today they suspect the intended target was the Anupgarh-Bathinda passenger train scheduled to leave Anupgarh around 6 am. North Western Railway suspended train operations on the route for safety checks and repairs before resuming services on November 5.
Because the stretch sits close to the international border, multiple agencies joined the inquiry from the start. Additional DGP Dinesh M N set up a joint team under Sri Ganganagar SP Harishankar, working alongside central intelligence agencies and Punjab Counter Intelligence.
On Sunday, officials announced that a joint operation by the Rajasthan ATS, Sri Ganganagar Police and Punjab Police had detained Mahakdeep Kaur, 21, and Davinder Singh, 22, in Gurdaspur. Some outlets spell his first name Devendra. Both are accused, and none of the allegations have been tested in court.
Police recovered two pistols, 46 live cartridges and ₹30,000 in cash. Three other individuals—including the owner of a hotel where the pair reportedly stayed—have also been detained on suspicion of arranging accommodation, a motorcycle and transport to the blast site.
Police say Kaur was in contact with two handlers in Pakistan who went by the code names Shah and Chacha. According to the Times of India and India Today, investigators allege she was introduced to Shah online, developed a romantic attachment, and was recruited after her husband was arrested in a drug case under the NDPS Act.
Investigators say the pair made three trips from Punjab to Sri Ganganagar. According to the Times of India and New Indian Express, they first visited Ramsinghpur on October 6 but could not carry out an attack because explosives were not available. They returned on October 12 or 13 with a timer device supplied by Shah, which failed to go off due to a technical defect, before they finally triggered the November 3 blast.
Gurdaspur SSP Aditya told Dainik Jagran that Shah allegedly sent Kaur ₹1 lakh, of which ₹30,000 was recovered. India Today also noted that Rajasthan ATS is checking whether this case connects to an earlier arrest in Gangapur City, where another woman was allegedly recruited through a similar online relationship. All of these accounts come from police briefings and unnamed sources.
What is established so far is straightforward. A blast damaged the track on November 3, nobody was hurt, and two residents of Gurdaspur are in custody.
Everything else—the handlers, the money trail, the failed October attempts, and any ISI involvement—is what police allege and remains to be proved. The reports reviewed did not list the formal charges filed against the pair or confirm when they will be produced before a magistrate. Interrogation is continuing, and Pakistan has not commented.
