ON the midnight of 18-19 February 2007, India-Pakistan Samjhota Express train was bombed in which 68 Pakistani nationals were killed. A Hindu extremist Sadhu Swami Aseemanand, a leader of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has confessed that he was involved in several bombings incidents. He also claimed to have been a part of the incident. In fact, ideology of Hindutva (Hindu nationalism) prevails in every field at the cost of other minority groups. It is even supported by Indian defence forces secretly. This could be judged from the incident, when on 6 April 2008 in the house of Bajrang Dal fundamentalists in Nanded, a bomb went off. The investigation proved that these militants were found in the bomb-making and attack on a mosque in Parbhani in 2003. Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra arrested a serving Lt Col Srikant Purohit along with other army officials, indicating that they were helping in training the Hindu terrorists, providing them with the military-grade explosive RDX, used in the Malegaon bombings and terrorist attacks in other Indian cities. ATS further disclosed that Lt Col Purohit confessed that in 2007, he was involved in bombing of Samjhauta Express.
India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) was convinced that Swami Aseemanand, was directly involved in the Samjhauta Express blast. Sources in NIA further pointed out that besides Lt Col Purohit, other Indian army officials were also behind that train-bombing. In this regard, a court in Panchkula, Haryana had recorded Aseemanand’s statement which confirmed the NIA inquiry. Aseemanand’s statement in the Samjhauta Express case was recorded under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code before a magistrate. His earlier admission was recorded in the Mecca Masjid case, which was being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Sadhu Aseemanand stuck to his confession that Hindutva radicals were behind the bomb attack on the Samjhauta Express—Aseemanand, Aka Naba and Kumar Sarkar, named absconding Hindutva militants—Ramji Kaisangra and Sandeep Dange as the key plotters in that terror attack.
Sources of the NIA also revealed that the confession in connection with the Samjhauta Express blast practically rules out the involvement of other groups. In the Samjhauta Express case, the probe team had found that the bomb used in the train was kept in a suitcase that was bought from a shop of Indore’s Kothari Market. The suitcase had cloth covers stitched by an Indian local tailor. Afterwards, the NIA was trying to get details of those who bought the suitcase and covers. Notably, Dr J C Batra, who is a senior advocate at the Supreme Court of India, was asked to give opinion on Aseemanand’s confession. He appeared very defensive and as usual started accusing Pakistan’s primary intelligence agency ISI—its so-called history for such activities, alleging that even this could be an ISI plot. He further said that Swami’s statement does not have much legal value as circumstantial evidence is also needed, while adding that RSS is being wrongly implicated and there could be others involved who are not being exposed. In this respect, a Pakistani parliamentarian, Mian Abdul Sattar, Parliamentary Secretary for Planning and Development, who was accompanying him, later stated that he was told by Mr JC Batra that the Indian Army was involved in this case and there “are efforts to shield it from getting exposed”.
Swami Aseemanand also confessed in the court that several RSS preachers and Sang activists were directly involved in planning, financing and executing Malegaon, Samjhauta Express, Ajmer and Mecca Masjid blasts. He stated that various leaders of Hindu communal organizations, including Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Abhinav Bharat, Jai Vande Matram and Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram were also behind these blasts. In this connection, exposing the nexus between Bhartia Janta Party (BJP) and the RSS, the then Indian Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde disclosed on January 20, 2013 that organized training camps run by the fundamentalist parties, RSS and BJP were promoting Hindu terrorism. He also explained that these extremist parties were behind the Samjhauta Express, Mecca Masjid and Malegaon blasts. He added, “We will have to think about it (Saffron terrorism) seriously…Hindu extremist parties BJP and RSS were involved many times in Hindu-Muslim violence in India, especially Gujarat and Babri Masjid incident.”
The then India’s External Affairs Minister, Salman Khurshid, endorsed Shinde’s statement, saying that it was based on facts. While, India has always accused Pakistan’s ISI of these acts of terrorism, but it is quite silent over Hindutva-terror which has obtained a new face, under the fundamentalist Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as Indian RAW, country’s high officials and fundamentalist parties have co-relationship. Despite the confessions of Swami Aseemanand, instead of taking action against the culprits of the Samjhauta Express explosion, the Supreme Court of India accepted the bail of Swami Aseemanand after the covert interference of the Modi-led authorities who changed the investigations in this respect in order to weaken the case. And NIA court in Haryana State on March 20, 2019 acquitted four individuals accused in the Samjhauta Express bombing case. In this context, Pakistan’s Foreign Office had condemned the ruling of the court by remarking: “The acquittal of the four accused, including Swami Aseemanand makes a travesty of justice…exposes the sham credibility of Indian Courts…it also belies the rampant Indian hypocrisy where India reflexively levels allegations of terrorism against Pakistan, while protecting with impunity terrorists who had publicly confessed to their odious crimes.”
—The writer is contributing columnist, based in Lahore.
Email: [email protected]
views expressed are writer’s own.
