Samjhotha Express Incident

By Tariq Rizwan

Samjhota incident that occurred on the night of 18 and 19 Feb 2007 is remembered as the most horrible one in the history of Indo Pakistan conspiracy game, started from partition days in 1947, when thousands of Hindus and Muslim were killed ruthlessly by the extremists. In 2007, the India Pakistan Samjhotha Express was bombed in which 88 passenger were burnt alive by the extremist Hindu group, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh; about 68 dead were Pakistanis. It was confessed by RSS leader Swami Aseemanand, who has been granted bail by the Indian Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Both the Indian and Pakistani governments condemned the attack, and officials on both sides speculated that the perpetrators intended to disrupt improving relations between the two nations, since the attack came just a day before Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri was to arrive in New Delhi to resume peace talks with Indian leaders. There have been a number of breaks in the investigation of the bombings. The notorious terrorist, Swami Aseem Anand, was not only involved in the attack on Samjhota Express but had also murdered 119 persons.

BJP is trying to protect Anand’s bail and supporting the terrorist. Recently, in his analysis in ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Saath’, Shahzeb Khanzada said Aseem Anand was also involved in the blasts in Makkah Masjid, Hyderabad Deccan in 2007 where eleven people were killed.

Anand was also involved in the bomb blast at Dargah Ajmer Sharif in Rajhasthan in 2007. Three people lost their lives in the incident. Similarly, he was also responsible for attacks on Muslim community in Malay Gaon with explosives, where the explosions left 37 people dead. So extremely horrible are Aseem Anand’s crimes that a responsible newspaper of India determined him as “the ugliest face of terrorism”.

Anand remained a zealous activist of the RSS and main character in most of the anti-Muslim activities in India. He has admitted twice in December 2010 and January 2011 in the court that he was involved in Samjhota Express incident. Once he did so but the court had given him 48 hours and asked the investigators to keep away from him so that it could be determined that he was not accepting the responsibility under duress. Yet he did not change his confessional statement and reiterated his confession again. The BJP government of India is not taking any action against him.

Instead of taking action, the BJP government is distancing itself from the culprit. According to reports by Caravan Magazine, Aseemanand, has claimed that the Malegaon, Ajmer and Samjhauta Express attacks were sanctioned by the RSS top brass, including its chief Mohan Bhagwat. No prominent RSS leader has been named in the charge sheet of the National Investigating Agency so far. The RSS has contested the report asking how could Aseemanand be interviewed when he is in jail.

The writer is freelance journalist based in London