ISLAMABAD – Pakistan on Monday asked India to provide updated information on the probe into the 2007 Samjhota Express train bombing after a leader of the Rashtrya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), an extremist Hindu organisation, confessed to carrying out the attack.
Swami Aseemanand recently confessed to the involvement of RSS activists in several terrorist attacks, including the bombing of the Samjhota Express that killed as many as 68 people, including 42 Pakistanis, according to Indian media reports.
“India’s acting Deputy High Commissioner GV Srinivas was called to the Foreign Office by Director General (South Asia) Afrasiab Mehdi Hashmi, who said information on progress in the investigations should be provided by New Delhi at the earliest,” Foreign Office Spokesman Abdul Basit said. In what seemed to be reference to the RSS leader’s confession to a special court in New Delhi, Basit said the Indian diplomat’s attention was drawn to recent media reports on the investigations into the Samjhota Express blasts of February 2007.
He said, “It was reiterated that the government of Pakistan was awaiting the progress made by the government of India in the investigations into the Samjhota Express blasts.”
“It was also underlined to Srinivas that a response from the government of India may be conveyed at the earliest,” he said.
Another official in the Foreign Office said Pakistan hoped India would come up with the updated information about its probe into the Samjhota Express bombing before the forthcoming meeting of foreign secretaries of the two countries to be held on the sidelines of a SAARC meeting in Bhutan on February 6-7.
Pakistan had asked India a couple of days ago to act speedily to bring to justice the perpetrators of the Samjhota Express bombing.
