NEW DELHI: An Indian court on Wednesday acquitted four Hindu men accused of bombing a train between India and Pakistan in 2007 that killed 68 people, mostly Pakistanis, citing a lack of evidence, defence lawyers said.
The ruling comes weeks after a sharp escalation in tensions between India and Pakistan after a suicide car bomb in Held Kashmir killed 40 Indian paramilitary police.
The acquittal drew an angry response from Pakistan, which summoned the Indian high commissioner to lodge strong protest and condemnation against the move.
The court in Haryana gave its verdict after dismissing a petition filed last week by the daughter of a Pakistani victim who wanted to get her statement recorded as a witness. “Prosecution has failed to prove the case so the court acquitted all of them,” lawyer Mukesh Garg told reporters outside the court. “The court first rejected the application from a Pakistani lady.”
Pakistan summons Indian envoy to lodge protest
One of those declared not guilty is Swami Aseemanand, a self-styled Hindu holy man and former member of the nationalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the parent of India’s ruling party.
Aseemanand was jailed in 2010 after admitting his involvement in the attack on the train near Panipat, a city about 100 km north of Delhi. He later said he was tortured to give a false statement.
In Islamabad, the Indian envoy was told that Pakistan has consistently raised lack of progress and subsequent concerted attempts by India to exonerate the perpetrators of the heinous terrorist act in which 44 innocent Pakistanis lost their lives. “The issue was raised repeatedly, including at the sidelines of the senior officials, Heart of Asia Meeting in 2016. Formal demarches were also lodged regularly with India on the lack of progress and acquittal of the accused in other cases,” the FO said in the statement.
FO terms acquittal of terrorists by Indian court a travesty of justice
“The acquittal of the accused, 11 years after the heinous Samjhauta terror attacks, makes a travesty of justice and exposes the sham credibility of the Indian courts. It also belies the rampant Indian duplicity and hypocrisy where India reflexively levels allegations of terrorism against Pakistan, while protecting with impunity the terrorists who had publicly confessed to their odious crimes,” the statement read.
The Indian envoy was told that “the Indian decision to gradually exonerate and finally acquit the perpetrators is not only a gross reflection of India’s callous insensitivity to the plight of the 44 families of the deceased Pakistanis but also reflective of the Indian state policy of promoting and protecting Hindu terrorists.” Islamabad also called upon New Delhi to explore judicial remedies to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice.
Two coaches of the Samjhauta Express, a bi-weekly train that runs between New Delhi and Lahore in Pakistan, caught fire late on Feb 19, 2007, after two improvised explosive devices exploded, according to a charge-sheet filed by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2013.
In all, the NIA had accused eight men of conducting what it described as a ‘dreadful terrorist act’. It said the group had been ‘angry with attacks on Hindu temples by terrorist activities’. One of the accused was murdered in December 2007 and three others absconded from justice.
Pakistan earlier questioned what it called India’s lack of action against the accused. India had responded by accusing Pakistan of failing to act against militant groups behind attacks in Mumbai in 2008, in which 166 people were killed.
Asaduddin Owaisi, an Indian lawmaker and prominent Muslim leader, criticised Wednesday’s verdict. “68 dead and nothing to account for them, nothing to say that justice has been done,” he said in a tweet.
