Daily Times

Thirteen years on, the families of victims of Samjhauta Express mourn the tragedy when 68 people boarding the Delhi-Lahore train were burnt alive including 40 Pakistanis on Feb 18, 2007.

Regardless of ample evidence behind the culprits of the inhumane incident, the Indian court in 2019 had acquitted all the accused culprits demonstrating the unwillingness of the Indian government to punish the perpetrators.

The acquittal of the self-confessed mastermind of the attack, Swami Aseemanand and some other accused, reaffirm the culture of impunity that the perpetrators of terrorist attacks enjoy under the BJP-led and Hindutva-driven political dispensation in India.

Showing solidarity to the families of the victims, Pakistan has frequently reminded the Indian government to take adequate actions and take credible steps to provide justice to the victims affected by the Samjhauta Train blasts.

A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in India’s Haryana state on March 20, 2019 acquitted four individuals accused in the Samjhauta Express bombing case. The ruling cited lack of evidence for the acquittal of Swami Aseemanand, Kamal Chauhan, Rajinder Chaudhary and Lokesh Sharma.

Indian courts have failed in provision of justice in almost all cases where ‘Hindutva Wave’ was involved in brutalizing Muslims whether it was Babari Masjid Case, Mecca Masjid Case, Malegaon Blast and Samjhauta Express. Eight judges were changed during the proceedings of the case.

The Samjhauta Express bombing was part of a string of similar attacks in 2006 and 2007 where Muslims were targeted. First incident occurred in Malegaon, Maharashtra state killing 40, second in Hyderabad city where 400-year-old Mecca Masjid was hit by a blast that killed six people while third one targeted Ajmer Sahrif Dargah in Rajasthan killing three. The NIA found similar pattern and material used in all explosions.

The systematic Indian decision to acquit the culprits behind this barbaric act show indifference of attitude towards Pakistani victims and also the Indian state policy of promoting and protecting Hindu terrorists.