New Delhi
21 February 2007
India on Wednesday politely declined Pakistan's offer to jointly
investigate the terrorist attack on the Samjhauta Express but agreed to share relevant
information when the India-Pakistan Joint Anti-terror Mechanism holds its inaugural
meeting in Islamabad on March 6. Investigations were continuing to ascertain the
identity of the two persons whose sketches have been released even as Northern
Railways adopted extra security measures including deploying more security personnel
on the Delhi-Attari train that left Old Delhi Railway Station on Wednesday night, for the
first time after the Sunday blasts.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said, "As per the law of the land, the
investigation is to be carried out by India. We will carry on the investigations and the
perpetrators of this heinous crime will be brought to book .... We established a joint
mechanism to deal with terrorism, which is meeting on the 6hh of March. One of the
basic objectives of establishing this institutional mechanism is to share information and
to act on that information. Therefore, it is appropriate that by that time whatever
information will be available in respect of this case, will be shared with the Pakistani
authorities as we have shared with them in respect of certain other cases too."
The Pakistan National Assembly on Tuesday unanimously adopted a government-
sponsored resolution called for the formation of a joint Pakistan-India investigating team
to probe the blasts in which 68 people were killed. Pakistan Railway Minister Sheikh
Rashid first mooted the proposal.
In response to a question from a Pakistan Television correspondent, whether Lashkar -e-
Tayyaba was responsbile for the blasts, Mr Mukherjee said, "The investigation is in
process and it would not be possible to conjecture anything unless the process is
complete. That is why I said that in the anti-terror mechanism whatever information will
be available till then will be shared with Pakistani authorities."
For his part, Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri reiterated that the
tragedy "underlined the need for cooperation". "I have no doubt that the meeting of the
anti-terror mechanism will take cognisance. The prime minister of India in a telephone
call to the prime minister of Pakistan has said that he would share the results of the
investigation and I am sure when the anti-terror mechanism meets in Ialamabad this will
be a very high item on their agenda," he said.
The police and allied agencies were continuing their investigations. A Pakistani national,
Usman Mohammed, who claims to have thrown away a suitcase containing the
incendiary materials in the Samjhauta Express on Sunday night, on Wednesday told a
magistrate in Panipat that four people had got off the train before the blasts ripped
through the compartments. After making a six-page statement before the magistrate,
Mohammed was handed over to Pakistani officials. He is expected to leave for home.
Northern Railways Chief Public Relations Officer Rajeev Saxena has since said that the
reserved tickets on Samjhauta Express for Attari and Lahore would now on be available
15 days in advance. Till now, tickets were issued only on the day of the travel but this
practise has been done away with now. Northern Railways has also decided to allow
only the passengers to enter the platform from where Samjhauta Express leaves. Also,
passengers will not be allowed to carry more than 40 kg luggage. Saxena said that the
train that left for Attari had no general compartments; there were only eight second class
reserved coaches. Earlier, there used to be four reserved and eight unreserved coaches
in the train.
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