Samjhauta Express blast: NIA seeks more details from US on LeT financier

NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is seeking more details from the US on the involvement of a Lashkare-Taiba (LeT) financier in the 2007 Samjhauta Express blast to wrap up probe into the terror attack that left 68 people dead. A high-level delegation led by NIA director general Sharad Kumar left for New York on Saturday to meet his US counterparts and get more details about the involvement of the LeT financier Arif Qasmani in the incident, government sources said.

The 68 people killed in the incident on February 18, 2007 near Panipat included both Indians and Pakistanis. On June 29, 2009, a United Nations committee on al-Qaida and its affiliates named the Karachi-based Qasmani as the kingpin behind the Delhi-Lahore Samjhauta Express blast and 2006 Mumbai local train bomb blasts.

The sources said the NIA approached the US government in 2010 to know on what basis it had pinpointed Qasmani’s involvement in the Samjhauta blasts. Washington replied saying they had nothing more to add or share.

It is normal for intelligence agencies not to share detailed information with even friendly countries for fear of compromising the source.

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