Terrorism

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Pak-India Relations | The Dimension of Non-State Actors

In the eyes of US policymakers, on the touchstone of stability, Pakistan is not bracketed
with India with which it shares social and cultural relations. Instead, Pakistan is bracketed
with those countries that share instability
- By Qaisar Rashid
Pakistan and India are caught up in a tussle in which Pakistan is demanding that India bring the
mastermind (and perpetrators) of the Samjhautha (friendship) Express blasts of February 2007 to
justice whereas India is demanding that Pakistan bring the mastermind (and perpetrators) of the
Mumbai attacks of November 2008 to justice. This seems to be a tit-for-tat policy by both countries.

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Pakistan thinks that the leader of Hindu extremist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS),
Swami Aseemanand, is culpable in the Samjhauta Express incident. He confessed before a judicial
magistrate his own involvement along with his accomplices in the twin bomb blasts that set two
rear passenger coaches of the train on fire, killing dozens of Pakistani passengers who were on
their way back from Delhi to Lahore in 2007. The RSS is closely tied to the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) of India’s current Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi. Pakistan has also asked India to
share with it the confessional statement of Aseemanand but India has turned down the request by
saying that Pakistan’s request was premature, as the probe had not been finalised. In the past, the
name of an Indian army officer, Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit, who had links with a Hindu
extremist group, Abhinav Bharatwas, was heard in this regard. Though Aseemanand has now gone
back on his confessional statement, which he claimed to have given under duress, the positive side
of these developments is that India is doing its homework by running after one suspect and trying
him...