Samjhauta Explosion: All Eyes and Ears on March 6 Indo-Pak Anti-Terror Meeting

By Animesh Roul

Somebody has rightly observed that the glass is both half-full and half-empty for India-Pakistan relations, as things stand now. After showing extreme restraint and caution following the February 18 blasts on Indo-Pak peace train (Samjhauta Exp), India has reportedly slammed Pakistan Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed's ‘irresponsible' comments against New Delhi’s alleged non-cooperative attitude in the investigations and in providing details of the victims. Rashid earlier observed that no information was being provided about the dead by India after many futile attempts. However, Indian authority rebuked saying that he should get in touch with his own foreign office.

This blame game is not restricted to sharing information on victims alone. There are few hiccups on the terror-probe front too. Pakistan showed displeasure and has not taken kindly to the India’s fingers towards a possible Pakistani (PoK) connection in this. This is evident from its FO spokesperson’s interview with a local TV channel. On top of it, it was made clear that Islamabad will not allow interrogation of its nationals injured in the tragedy by the Indian officials.

Meanwhile, at least seven people (suspects) detained for questioning so far in a coordinated raid from neighboring states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Old Delhi locality of the National Capital. One of the arrested suspects resembled one of the sketches of two suspects released by the Haryana police on Feb 20. Two of them (See the sketches) had reportedly jumped off the train 15 minutes before the blasts.

This war of words notwithstanding Pakistan wished to have a clear picture of the terror probe before the next month’s (March 6) meeting of Indo-Pak Joint Anti-Terror Mechanism, since India has turned down the proposal for a joint investigation into the terror incident and insisted to probe as per the ‘law of the land.’ However, it is emphasized that the results of the investigation would be shared with Pakistan at the forthcoming meeting in Islamabad. All hopes are now on that meeting where more graves (Delhi Market blasts, Mumbai commuter train blasts and Samjhauta explosions) will be "excavated," beyond this blame game.

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