India yet to give list of train victims: Pakistan
Feb 23, 2007 - 6:20:12 PM
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India had rejected a joint probe into the blasts and has said it will share evidence in the blast probe when the joint anti-terror mechanism meets in Islamabad March 6.
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By IANS,
[RxPG] New Delhi/Islamabad, Feb 23 - Even as India and Pakistan try to resolve differences over questioning survivors of the train blasts, a basic issue of facts - the exact number of Pakistanis dead and injured - is creating confusion and resentment in Islamabad.
India has failed to provide a list of mainly Pakistani passengers who died in the bomb attack on the Samjhauta Express five days ago, Pakistan's Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid told the national assembly in Islamabad Friday.
'If India had to face the same consequences, they would have raised a hue and cry,' Rashid said, the Online news agency of Pakistan reported.
He added that India had not shared any information with Pakistan regarding its probe into the incident.
The Pakistani high commission here confirmed that India has yet to give a formal list of the exact number of the Pakistani nationals who have been injured and killed in Sunday night's twin blasts on the Delhi-Attari Express, killing 68 people. Over 600 Lahore-bound passengers, mostly Pakistanis, were travelling in the train.
'It's a basic question of facts. Let's first settle it before moving on to other things,' a Pakistani mission official, who did not wish to be named, told IANS.
'We have sought the list of Pakistani victims which has not been given to us. It's the duty of the host government to do so,' he added.
'I understand there are difficulties. But we need to know the facts,' he stressed.
Pakistan's contention is surprising as the Indian external affairs ministry gave a precise count of the victims: of the 68 dead, 33 bodies have been identified. Twenty seven of these are Pakistanis. Twenty-one bodies have been handed over to the relatives of those killed in the train blasts, the external affairs ministry spokesperson Navtej Sarna told reporters Thursday.
Facts are, of course sacred, but it appears that despite Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri's assertion that his country will cooperate with India in investigating the blasts the two countries are still to sort out differences over questioning the seven injured who were ferried by a special aircraft of the Pakistan Air Force Thursday night.
India has sought access to the survivors who are prime witnesses to the blasts.
Reliable sources said the Pakistani plane had to wait at the airport here for nearly five hours with the critically injured passengers inside it as diplomats of the two countries quibbled over procedural questions on questioning the injured.
India had rejected a joint probe into the blasts and has said it will share evidence in the blast probe when the joint anti-terror mechanism meets in Islamabad March 6.
'We hope the authorities in Pakistan will extend all cooperation in identifying and punishing the guilty,' the ministry said Thursday hours before Kasuri left for Islamabad, wrapping up his three-day visit to India.
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