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  • News Desk
  • Jan 11th, 2011
  • Comments Off on Samjhauta Express blasts: Islamabad asks Delhi for official update
After having learnt about some developments on the investigation into the Samjhauta Express blasts of 2007 that killed 70 people according to some media reports, Pakistan on Monday asked India for an official update of the probe that had already taken almost four years.

Acting Deputy High Commissioner of India, G V Srinivas was summoned by the Foreign Office and conveyed the message, seeking a response on the probe at the earliest. Afrasiab, Director General (South Asia) had called the Deputy High Commissioner of India. He was given reference of the media reports pertaining to the investigation. It was reiterated that "the government of Pakistan was awaiting the progress made by the government of India in the investigation of the blast."

During last week, Swami Aseemanand, a Hindu extremist leader has confessed that he was involved in several bombing incidents. He claimed to have been a part of the India-Pakistan Samjhauta Express train bombing in 2007 in which 68 Pakistani nationals were killed.

Swami Aseemanand is said to be a leader of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a Hindu group that have close ties with India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party. It was reported that he had been arrested by authorities in November. Aseemanand had reportedly confessed before a judicial magistrate saying he along with his fellow RSS activists were involved in blasts on Samjhauta Express; at mosques in Malegaon in Maharashtra state and Andhra Pradesh's state capital, Hyderabad; and a Muslim shrine in Ajmer in Rajasthan.

Pakistan is of the view that India should not squander in bringing to justice the perpetrators of bombing of Samjhauta Express train in light of a RSS leader's confession. The relations between the two countries soured and the peace dialogue process was derailed in the wake of the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, which claimed 166 lives. The two countries have recently begun to explore a resumption of structured talks.

In this respect, the Foreign Office had announced last week that foreign secretaries of the two countries will meet at the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (Saarc) moot scheduled to take place in Thimphu, Bhutan on February 6-7. Pakistan has always pressed for meaningful and result-oriented dialogue with India covering every lingering dispute between the two countries.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2011


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