In February 2007, bomb blasts tore through two carriages of the Samjhauta Express. PHOTO: FILE
“The victims of the Samjhauta Express terrorist attack continue to await justice,” read a statement issued by the Foreign Office on the 13th anniversary of the blast in which 68 passengers on the Delhi-Lahore train, including over 40 Pakistanis, had lost their lives.
“The inordinate delay in justice for the victims of this tragedy, despite the availability of evidence, illustrates the unwillingness of the Indian government to hold the perpetrators to account for their barbaric action,” the Foreign Office added.
It further said last year’s acquittal of the self-confessed mastermind of the attack, Swami Aseemanand, and some others, only reconfirmed the culture of impunity that the perpetrators of terrorist attacks enjoy under the RSS/BJP-led, Hindutva-driven, political dispensation in India.
“On this day, while expressing solidarity with the families of the victims, Pakistan reminds the Indian government of its responsibility to take serious and credible steps to bring the perpetrators of the Samjhauta Express blasts to justice at the earliest and without further delay,” the statement read.
Pakistan rejects request to resume Samjhauta, Thar trains
The Indian media reported extensively about the connection between the Samjhauta terrorist attack and Hindu extremists, including Lieutenant Colonel Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur who were subsequently arrested in October 2008 for providing explosives to the attackers.
On 18 December 2010, Swami Aseemanand, the mastermind of the attack, publicly confessed before the New Delhi court that Hindu terrorist outfits were behind the blasts.
Despite repeated requests by Pakistan for a fair trial and expeditiously bringing the perpetrators to justice, the Indian courts exonerated the accused over a decade later.
“The Indian decision to gradually exonerate and finally acquit the perpetrators despite the presence of clear evidence against them is a reflection of India’s callous insensitivity to the plight of the 44 families of the deceased Pakistanis, who have been waiting for more than a decade to see these terrorists brought to justice,” said an official. “It also demonstrates how India protects terrorists who publicly confessed their odious crimes.”
According to India's National Investigation Agency, which probed the case, the attack was carried out by a Hindu far-right group.
Swami Aseemanand, alias Naba Kumar Das, was former member of the Hindu nationalist group RSS.
The NIA in its charge sheet had said the accused had met at different locations across India to plot bombings targeting Muslims.
In April 2018, a court had acquitted all 11 men charged by the NIA in for the Mecca Masjid blast where six people were killed in the Indian city of Hyderabad.
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