Pakistan

Samjhota blast: Pakistan demands justice for perpetrators

Pakistan urges India to not “squander” in bringing to justice the perpetrators of bombing of Samjhota Express.

Express January 09, 2011

Pakistan urged New Delhi on Saturday to not “squander” in bringing to justice the perpetrators of the bombing of the Samjhota Express train in light of a RSS leader’s confession about the involvement of Sangh activists in the attack, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.

“It took almost four years for the Samjhota Express investigations to come to this pass. We can only hope that no further time will be squandered in bringing the criminals to justice,” Foreign Office Spokesperson Abdul Basit said.

Basit was responding to a question on Pakistan’s reaction to Aseemanand’s confession about the involvement of Sangh activists in several terrorist attacks, including the 2007 bombing of the Samjhota Express that killed nearly 70 people, majority of them Pakistanis.

“The reported confession by Aseemanand underlines the need for avoiding unhelpful knee-jerk reactions as was done in India (at the time of the attack),” Basit said.

“We look forward to hearing from India officially. The relatives of 42 Pakistani victims of the Samjhota Express terrorist action are desperately waiting for their protracted trauma to come to an end,” he added.

Pakistan has asked India several times over the past two years to inform it of developments in the investigation into the Samjhota Express bombing.

Asked if Pakistani authorities would like to question the accused in the Samjhota case, Indian Express newspaper quoted Basit as saying: “First we would like to get information through official channels, then we will decide on our response.”

Jatin Chatterjee alias Aseemanand, 59, has given a detailed description of the involvement of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activists and self-styled spiritual leaders in several terror attacks across India during the past three years in his confessional statement given to a special CBI court in New Delhi.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 9^th, 2011.

COMMENTS (1)

Vidyut | 13 years ago | Reply As an Indian, I cannot have enough words to express my condolences to the families. As an Indian, I am an equal culprit of gullibility. Of not questioning the writing on the wall. Of believing that the Hindu hatred for Muslims, small as it was, was still a phenomenon out in the open, like riots, which we could condemn and resist loudly enough to lead to a virtual end of such incidents. We thought we had fixed it. We were blind. Hatred doesn't go away when it becomes unpopular. It hides, as we learn at great cost in shame. I agree completely that the culprits must be brought to justice. I also think that the words of Swami Aseemanand should be widely published so that people may read and learn. For all the evil he did, two things he shared are a lesson to all of us. The first was his confession when he met Kaleem who treated him with great kindness and the remorse and prayaschitta (making ammends of a wrong done) that followed. "During my interaction with Kaleem, I learnt that he was previously arrested in the Mecca Masjid bomb blast case and he had to spend about one-and-a-half years in prison. During my stay in jail, Kaleem helped me a lot and used to serve me by bringing water, food etc for me. I was very moved by Kaleem's good conduct and my conscience asked me to do prayaschit (penance) by making confessional statement." It shows us that the hardliners beliefs can become blind to what it perceives as the enemy and this can lead to great wrongs. It is also important that he then learned from what he discovered and made his confession. Of course, his crimes must not be excused because of that in any way, but it is also a reminder that no matter how evil we become, there is potential for change with each new learning. The second is his words that are a wake up call for all humans and Hindus in particular. Aseemanand also reportedly said the Hindus are sitting quiet and that is not good. He said this about the Hindus not being too concerned about what they did (as in these guys - not the Muslim terrorist blasts), from the sound of it. This is what I have been blogging about for ages now, yelling myself hoarse about the warning signs in the language and beliefs we sometimes see in the society. The Hindus are too unconcerned with matters they are not interested in, or would like to not believe. Or they just think everything is fine. It is really sad when a terrorist with a conscience teaches us something we should have being paying attention to - that the moral fabric of our society is something we must nurture and not neglect. More importantly, we must not need to walk that path and shame ourselves before we learn it.

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