13 Pakistanis miss court hearing, again

PANCHKULA : Thirteen Pakistani nationals, who were summoned for deposing as witnesses in connection with the 2007 Samjhauta Express blast case, missed hearing at the special NIA court on Monday. They had not appeared in the last hearing in July also.

The hearing was deferred to December 8.

Sources said the prosecution may seek to sum mon them in the next hearing. Many of those summoned were survivors of the blast at the Samjhauta Express, also called Attari Express, that ran twice a week between Delhi and Attari in India and Lahore in Pakistan. As many as 68 people were charred to death in two coaches in the blast near Panipat on February 18, 2007.

The main accused, Swami Aseemanand ,did not appear for hearing citing health grounds while the other accused Rajen- der Chaudhary, Lokesh Sharma and Kamal Chauhan were present.

The NIA that filed the chargesheet in 2011 held that Aseemanand, who walked free earlier this year in the Ajmer Dargah blast case, has been charged with conspiracy along with his associates hatched the conspiracy to blast the train as they were upset with a series of terror attack on Indian temples between 2005 and 2007, including Akshardham in Gujarat and Raghunath Mandir in Jammu. They planned Samjhauta Express blast to avenge these attacks.

The defence maintained that they were falsely implicated as part of larger political conspiracy since the real accused of the attack were let off. The trial is currently at the prosecution evidence stage. the court proceedings of over 200 witnesses is over.