Prasad Shrikant Purohit

Prasad Shrikant Purohit

The 2007 Samjhauta Express bombings were a terrorist attack that occurred around midnight on 18 February 2007 on the Samjhauta Express, a twice-weekly train service connecting Delhi, India, and Lahore, Pakistan. Bombs were set off in two carriages, both filled with passengers, just after the train passed Diwana station near the Indian city of Panipat, 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of New Delhi. Sixty-eight people were killed in the ensuing fire and dozens more were injured. Of the 68 fatalities, most were Pakistani civilians, but the victims included some Indian civilians and Indian military personnel guarding the train.

Investigators subsequently found evidence of suitcases with explosives and flammable material, including three undetonated bombs. Inside one of the undetonated suitcases, a digital timer encased in transparent plastic was packed alongside a dozen plastic bottles containing fuel oils and chemicals. After the bombings, eight unaffected carriages were allowed to continue onwards to Lahore with passengers.

Both the Indian and Pakistani governments condemned the attack, and officials on both sides speculated that the perpetrators intended to disrupt improving relations between the two nations, since the attack came just a day before Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri was to arrive in New Delhi to resume peace talks with Indian leaders. There have been a number of breaks in the investigation of the bombings. As of 2011, nobody has been charged for the crime though it has been linked to Abhinav Bharat, a shadowy Hindu fundamentalist group. Other allegations also concurred on Lashkar-e-Taiba. United States report declared Arif Qasmani to be involved in the attack and declared him an international terrorist after approaching the United Nations about it.