India declines Pak call for joint investigation into Samjhauta train blasts

NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has ruled out a joint investigation by India and Pakistan of Sunday’s terror attack on the Samjhauta Express but has promised to share information with Islamabad at the meeting of the joint anti-terror mechanism on March 6.

“As per the law of the land, the investigation will be conducted by India,” Mukherjee said after talks with Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri.

One of the objectives of the anti-terror mechanism is to share information and act on it. “We will share information on other blasts as well,” Mukherjee said, a reference to the 11/7 blasts in Mumbai, for which India had blamed Pakistan.

On Tuesday, Pakistan’s National Assembly had adopted a resolution calling for the two countries to jointly investigate the Samjhauta tragedy. But Kasuri did not raise the issue in his meeting with Mukherjee, because Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had already promised his Pakistani counterpart, Shaukat Aziz, that India would share the investigation’s findings.

“India will make every effort to bring the perpetrators of the heinous act to justice,” Mukherjee said.

But later in the day, the hostility between the neighbours resurfaced. India said Pakistan would be allowed to send a plane to pick up its critically injured citizens, if Indian investigators are allowed to visit Pakistan to question some of those who were on the train.