New Delhi, June 27: Security agencies probing the Samjhauta Express blast case of 2007 have gathered evidence that points a strong finger of suspicion at Abhinav Bharat, a Hindu right wing extremist organisation said to be having strong connections with the RSS.
Sixty-eight passengers, mostly Pakistani citizens on their way back home, were killed in the Samjhauta Express blasts around midnight on February 18, 2007, near Panipat in Haryana.
“The modus operandi and the nature of the explosive used in Samjhauta Express blast have striking similarity with the Mecca Masjid blasts, of 2007 in Hyderabad and Malegaon blasts, which are also suspected t be orchestrated by Abhinav Bharat Sansthan,” top home ministry sources said. Though investigations into the Samjhauta blasts had run into a blind alley after the agencies traced the cover of the suitcase (used to carry out the blasts), to Indore, the investigators later found that the circuit, explosives, detonation device and battery make used in the three different blasts had uncanny similarities.
Moreover, with CBI making quick progress in the Mecca Masjid blast case (the agency announced cash reward of Rs. 10 lakh for providing information on Sandeep Dange and Ramchandra Kalsangra), the home ministry has become hopeful of solving the Samjhauta case.
Sources also indicated that with a common string of Hindu extremist organisations running across various terror blasts — Malegaon, Mecca Masjid, Goa, Modasa and Dargah Ajmer Sharif — the home ministry is planning to hand over all the cases to a single agency. “The Goa and Modasa blast cases are being investigated by the NIA and Mecca Masjid by the CBI,” sources said.
–Agencies–