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Exactly 95 years ago, the 8 Down Train from Shahjahanpur to Lucknow was approaching the town of Kakori , when the emergency chain was pulled by a member of the Hindustan Republican Army. They looted almost 100,00 Indian rupees to fund their fight against the British.
It was a daring, well-planned attack which was completely successful. The passengers were not attacked or robbed, though one died in an accidental gun discharge.
It was masterminded by Ram Prasad Bismil & Ashfaquallah Khan though almost 40 people were arrested for the incident. The British were specially hard on the Kakori conspirators as they feared the intellect & scale of planning. Most of the participants were betrayed by informants
Bismil, Khan, Roshan Singh & Rajendra Nath Lahiri were sentenced to death, 2 were transported to Kala Paani and the rest were jailed in India. Despite the efforts of GB Pant, Motilal Nehru, Malviya and many others, the British government did not relent on the sentence
The most prominent survivor was Chandrashekhar Azad, who managed to evade the police till 1931, till he was betrayed and died in a final shoot-out against the police.
The Kakori train attack was a landmark in our freedom struggle
The Kakori train attack was a landmark in our freedom struggle
