ISLAMABAD, 21 February 2007 — Pakistan’s National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, yesterday urged India to share the probe report of the train bomb blast with Pakistan.
The house initiated the debate after suspending normal business calling on New Delhi to facilitate the travel of the kin of those killed or injured in the bombing. The blasts on the Samjhauta Express killed 67 people on Monday.
Federal Minister for Railways Shaikh Rashid Ahmad told the house the Indian government had not provided complete details of the victims.
“So far we have only received passport numbers of the Pakistanis killed. We want the Indian government to allow the relatives of the deceased to visit and identify the victims,” he said.
Deputies Dr. Rozeena Tufail, Liaquat Baloch, Dr. Firdous Ashiq Awan, Nayyar Bukhari and others rejected the Indian claim that Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad were involved saying it was too premature to claim their involvement.
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Khusro Bakhtiar told the National Assembly the Indian government had set up an emergency cell at its high commission in Islamabad to provide information to the families of the victims. He said that “though the process is slow we are receiving cooperation from India.”
The lawmakers were unanimous in their view that those against the normalization of relations between India and Pakistan masterminded the bombings.
The National Assembly adopted a resolution calling for a joint investigation into the bombings.
In another development the Rawalpindi Police arrested suspects involved in acts of terrorism and murders of politicians including Azam Tariq.
