Samjhauta Express case: Pakistan protests acquittal of all four accused
Islamabad called upon India to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice.
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – The Acting Foreign Secretary summoned the Indian High Commissioner today (Wednesday) to lodge Pakistan’s strong protest and condemnations against the acquittal of all four accused, including Swami Aseemanand, (the main perpetrator, activist of the Hindu terrorist organization RSS) in the Samjhauta Terror Attacks by the Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) Court.
The Acting Foreign Secretary stressed that Pakistan had consistently raised the lack of progress and the subsequent, concerted attempts by India to exonerate the perpetrators of this heinous terrorist act in which 44 innocent Pakistanis lost their lives. The issue was raised repeatedly, including at the sidelines of the Senior Officials, Heart of Asia Meeting in 2016. Formal demarches were also lodged regularly with India on the lack of progress and acquittal of the accused in other cases.
"The acquittal of the accused today, 11 years after the heinous Samjhauta Terror Attacks makes a travesty of justice and exposes the sham credibility of the Indian Courts. It also belies the rampant Indian duplicity and hypocrisy where India reflexively levels allegations of terrorism against Pakistan, while protecting with impunity, terrorists who had publicly confessed to their odious crimes," the Foreign Office stated in a press release.
The Acting Foreign Secretary emphasized that the systemic Indian decision to gradually exonerate and finally acquit the perpetrators, is not only a gross reflection of India’s callous insensitivity to the plight of the 44 families of the deceased Pakistanis, who hoped that India would but also reflective of the Indian state policy of promoting and protecting Hindu terrorists. He called upon India to explore judicial remedies to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice.
Samjhauta Express Case Verdict
Today, an Indian court acquitted four Hindus charged with triggering explosions on a train heading to India’s border with Pakistan 12 years ago, killing 68 people, mostly Pakistani citizens.
Defense attorney Mukesh Garg said the court in the northern Indian town of Mohali ruled that investigators failed to conclusively prove that the accused were guilty.
Two coaches of the Samjhauta Express, or Friendship Express, were engulfed in flames after the blasts in 2007 outside Dewana, a train station near New Delhi.
The train was traveling from New Delhi to Atari, the last station before the Pakistan border. At Atari, passengers switch to a Pakistani train.
Pakistan had been pressing India to expedite the trial. India’s National Investigation Agency filed charges of criminal conspiracy to murder against the defendants in 2011.
