Terrorists Strike Samjhota Express

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007 02 20 story_20-2-2007_pg7_9

Survivors recount train inferno

PANIPAT: Survivors told on Monday how a ball of fire incinerated dozens of passengers and reduced two carriages of the India-Pakistan “Friendship Express” to charred wrecks. Kamaruddin, 60, from Multan in Pakistan, said chaos spread quickly through the train after a deadly cocktail of kerosene and explosives went off.

“I was sitting towards the end of one of the two coaches when I heard a deafening sound within few feet away from me,” said Kamaruddin. “The whole place was full of smoke and I could hear a lot of people screaming for help but I could not move.” He was taken unconscious from the scene at Deewana and awoke at a nearby hospital in Panipat.

A crowd of other injured survivors and frantic relatives struggled at the hospital to make sense of the attack. “There was a huge fire and I saw smoke coming out,” said Usman Ali, who hails from Lahore. “When I came out of the coach, I saw that the doors of one (carriage) were closed and people could not escape,” he told AFP. A man who identified himself only as Anwar said four of his Pakistani relatives from a family of six, including two children, were among the 66 dead. He held out hope that two boys had survived but was unable to enter Panipat’s Phim Sensachar Civil Hospital to check. “The doctors are not allowing me to go in. The doctors say the post-mortem has to be completed first.” A doctor said that verification could take time because of the severity of the inferno that burnt out two coaches of the train. “It’s very difficult to say who the victims were,” said Dr Ved Gupta, head of post-mortem operations at the hospital in Panipat. “Most of the bodies were charred beyond recognition,” he said. “It is difficult to say who is who, whether they are Indians or Pakistanis.” Outside the hospital more than a dozen wooden coffins lined the boundary wall of the mortuary as trucks brought slabs of ice for other bodies that were placed in bags. Sayed Ahmed, 64, from a small village in India’s northern Uttar Pradesh state, said he had two relatives from Pakistan who were on the train but could not identify the burnt remains.

“They’re all in body bags. I can’t recognise anybody,” he said. A dozen injured people were moved to New Delhi from the hospital. Other survivors were spread inside the hospital grounds. afp

The train was travelling at 60 MPH when the blaze occured. Unless someone personally hurled petrol bombs inside from outside, there`s no way roadside timed devices would have caused a blaze inside the two cars. Someone is using this accident for propaganda value ...

One passenger was saying ... yeh bomb shomb ka to koi chakar nahin hai ... ``

Re:zahraj#4

[..I find your arrogance real profound. Either you`ve yet to open your eyes or you have completely declined to do so. This is very interesting....]

What was arrogant about my analysis? Several Pakistani leaders, journalists in newspapers like Nation and even our own Manto on chowk have declared this incident to be the work of hindu fundamentalists. This is exactly what the jihadis wanted - provoke communal feelings in Pakistan against hindus all over again to create tit for tat violence and sabotage the peace process. This is a machiavellian conspiracy.

Hindu fundamentalists do not like Pakistan for sure. But I fail to see why they would unnecessarily do this when things are going well on the Indo-Pak front. The Jihadis on the other hand had every reason to do this and try to frame hindus.

This was a ghastly terrorist act and my condolences to all the people who suffered in this attack. I hope India does its best to provide proper treatment to the wounded and provides hassle free facilities for the relatives to come from Pakistan so as to collect the remains of the dead or attend to the wounded. Also it should deliver on the promise of compensation to all the victims.

The real questions are who did it and why did they do it? There are basically 2 suspects - hindu fundamentalists or the jihadis. At first blush, it may appear to be the handiwork of hindu fundamentalists since most of the victims were Pakistanis or Indian muslims. But then we must ask why would they unnecessarily do such a thing? The peace talks between India and Pakistan have been going rather well for India with Pakistan more or less giving up its plebiscite demands on Kashmir, while India has not really given up anything. In fact, India has managed to cool down Kashmir quite a bit. So why would hindus be that much against the peace process to kill innocent people on a train?

The second suspect are the jihadis. They are indeed opposed to the peace process tooth and nail because they view it as a death sentence for their livelihood which is to propagate jihad in Kashmir and elsewhere. With the Kashmiri leaders calling for an end of violence, the jihadis are at the end of their rope with respect to Kashmir. What better way to disrupt the peace process than to sabotage the Samjhauta Express on Indian soil with Pakistani casualties!! The calculation is to provoke Pakistani public back in Pakistan by making it appear as if hindu fundamentalists have attacked and killed Pakistanis. It is a pre-meditated attempt to recreate the 1947 style communal hysteria in Pakistani Punjab by causing mass casualties and attempting to show it to be the work of hindus. The calculation is that such hysteria will lead to retaliatory attacks on Indian visitors to Pakistan during Basant or other occasions. This would lead to a souring of Indo-Pak relations. In addition, there would be local pressure on Pak government to avoid cutting any deals with India for the peace process thus preserving the status quo in Kashmir as much as possible. But what about taking Pakistani casualties? The recent jihadi suicide bombings in Pakistan show that jihadis have no hesitation in taking Pakistani muslim lives for their lunatic causes if need be.

Therefore, it appears that this incident is a very calculated, machiavellian move by the jihadi leadership to communalize Indo-Pak relations back to the 1947 style of killing the opposing community`s civilians and wrecking the nascent peace process that has developed so far. I hope the Indians and Pakistani leadership as well as the masses do not fall into that same communal trap once again.

Re: # 4

I find your arrogance real profound. Either you`ve yet to open your eyes or you have completely declined to do so. This is very interesting.

[The real questions are who did it and why did they do it? There are basically 2 suspects - hindu fundamentalists or the jihadis. At first blush, it may appear to be the handiwork of hindu fundamentalists since most of the victims were Pakistanis or Indian muslims. But then we must ask why would they unnecessarily do such a thing?]

[ The peace talks between India and Pakistan have been going rather well for India with Pakistan more or less giving up its plebiscite demands on Kashmir, while India has not really given up anything. In fact, India has managed to cool down Kashmir quite a bit. So why would hindus be that much against the peace process to kill innocent people on a train? ]

It is extremely unfortunate that some brainless idiots have once again spilt innocent blood solely to vitiate the improving relations between the two countries. The perpetrators must be brought to justice. The peace process must not be derailed.....

This will achieve results that are the opposite of what the cold-hearted, brain-dead criminals who murdered these innocent people hoped to achieve - it will bring the two nations together against the murderous religious extremists on both sides. At least I hope it will.

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Sad. Disappointing. Inhuman.