'It took almost four years for the Samjhauta Express investigations to come to this pass. We can only hope that no further time will be squandered in bringing the criminals to justice,' foreign office spokesperson Abdul Basit said.
Dragging its feet over the Mumbai terror strike case, Pakistan today fired a salvo at India demanding that New Delhi should not "squander" in bringing to justice the perpetrators of the bombing of the Samjhauta Express train in light of a RSS leader's confession about the involvement of Sangh activists in the attack.
"It took almost four years for the Samjhauta Express investigations to come to this pass. We can only hope that no further time will be squandered in bringing the criminals to justice," foreign office spokesperson Abdul Basit said.
Basit was responding to a question on Pakistan's reaction to Aseemanand's confession about the involvement of Sangh activists in several terrorist attacks, including the 2007 bombing of the Samjhauta Express that killed nearly 70 people, a majority of them Pakistanis.
"The reported confession by Aseemanand underlines the need for avoiding unhelpful knee-jerk reactions as was done in India (at the time of the attack)," Basit said.
"We look forward to hearing from India officially. The relations of 42 Pakistani victims of the Samjhauta Express terrorist action are desperately awaiting their protracted trauma to come to an end," he added.
Pakistan has asked India several times in the past two years to apprise it of developments in the investigation into the Samjhauta Express bombing.
The issue was raised by Pakistani officials and leaders with home minister P Chidambaram and external affairs minister SM Krishna when they visited Islamabad last year.
Basit did not respond to a question on whether Pakistan would seek access to suspects arrested in India for the Samjhauta Express bombing though sources in the government said a decision would be made on this issue after Islamabad receives information on the latest developments in the Indian investigation through official channels.
Jatin Chatterjee alias Aseemanand, 59, has given a detailed description of the involvement of Sangh activists and self-styled spiritual leaders in several terror attacks across India during the past three years in his confessional statement given to a special CBI court in New Delhi.
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