» NIA To Probe Mecca Masjid, Samjhauta Express Blast Links
Mecca Masjid, Samjhauta Linked?
The National Investigation Agency will investigate if any link exists among the Mecca Masjid blast case, the Ajmer blast case and the Samjhauta Express blast.
Speaking in the Lok Sabha on Friday, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said that the NIA will probe the entire conspiracy behind the attack on the Samjhauta Express which killed 68 travellers when bombs were set off in two coaches of the train which plies between India and Pakistan on 18 February 2007.
The probe will try to find out if the terrorists who carried out attacks in the Samjhauta Express were the same ones who were involved in the bomb attacks in Malegaon, Mecca Masjid and the Dargah of Hazrath Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti in Ajmer.
Chidambaram's statement came as an answer to a question raised after he presented the home ministry's report card for July in the Lok Sabha on Friday.
The home minister said that the centre had decided to hand over the Samjhauta Express bombing probe to the NIA, since the Haryana police had not made any headway into the investigations. He said that this was done with the consent of the Haryana police.
He said that it was necessary that a probe finds out if there is any link among the bombings, which are being attributed to a Hindu terror group.
Chidambaram was quick to point out that it would be wrong to pinpoint any organisation or individual to be behind the bombing at this stage. He reminded the lower house that the Mecca Masjid blast case is being investigated by the CBI while the Ajmer and Malegaon cases are being probed by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad.