The 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack was a deadly terrorist act carried out on March 20, 1995, by members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult in Tokyo, Japan. During the morning rush hour, five members of the cult released sarin gas, a highly toxic nerve agent, on several lines of the Tokyo subway system. The attack was meticulously planned: each member carried sarin in liquid form, wrapped in plastic bags and newspapers, and punctured them with sharpened umbrella tips before fleeing the trains. The gas spread quickly in the confined subway spaces, causing chaos and panic. The attack killed 13 people, severely injured around 50, and affected over 1,000 more with temporary vision and respiratory problems. It was the deadliest attack on Japanese soil since World War II and shocked the nation due to both its scale and the fact that it was perpetrated by a domestic religious group. Aum Shinrikyo, led by Shoko Asahara, believed in a mix of apocalyptic and religious ideologies and sought to trigger a global catastrophe. Following the attack, Japanese authorities launched a massive crackdown on the cult. Asahara and several top members were arrested, tried, and eventually sentenced to death. Asahara was executed in 2018, along with other senior cult members. The incident raised global awareness of the threat posed by chemical weapons and religious extremism and led to changes in how Japan approached public safety, emergency response, and surveillance of extremist groups.

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