[Reader-list] Saffron terror leader to be booked for Samjhauta blast

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Saffron terror leader to be booked for Samjhauta blast
Vishwa Mohan & Dwaipayan Ghosh, TNN, Jan 6, 2011, 12.54am IST

NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency probing the blast on
Samjhauta Express in February 2007 looks set to book militant Hindutva
leader Aseemanand. It has identified Aseemanand as the key plotter of
the attack that killed 68 people, majority of them Pakistani citizens
returning home after visiting their kin in India.

Sources in the agency, which was brought in after investigations by
Haryana Police reached a dead-end, told TOI that Aseemanand planned
the blast to avenge the series of terror attacks by Islamist terror
groups.

"The role of Hindu extremists behind the blast has become clear. The
probe agency found that Aseemanand was one of the plotters. The group
had done it under their 'Bomb-for-Bomb' plan which was hatched in the
Dangs district of Gujarat," said sources in the NIA.

Haryana police had found similarities in the explosives used in the
Samjhauta blast and the explosion at Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid, another
attack suspected to have been carried out by Aseemanand and his
comrades under the 'Bomb-for-Bomb' plan.

But the Haryana cops could not connect the dots. The picture was
further complicated when the US named a Pakistani terrorist, Asif
Kasmani, suspected to be a go-between Lashkar and al-Qaida, as the
main suspect in the Samajhauta blast.

NIA's probe into the cases of saffron terror has gathered momentum
after the arrest of Aseemanand who is believed to have inspired
Abhinav Bharat members to retaliate against Islamist terror.

NIA's investigation into the Samjhauta train attack may give Pakistan
a handle to embarrass India. Officials are wary of the possibility of
Islamabad asking for Aseemanand's custody once he is charge-sheeted.
But the government has decided to press ahead with the probe, said an
official.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Saffron-terror-leader-to-be-booked-for-Samjhauta-blast/articleshow/7225559.cms