By IANS,
Ambala (Haryana) : The Haryana railway police Monday said they wanted the custody of Lt. Col. Prasad Shrikant Purohit to probe leads into the Samjhauta Express train blast near Panipat city in February last year. Purohit is allegedly the mastermind behind the Malegaon blast.
Superintendent of railway police Bharti Arora said a police team from here was already in Nashik, Maharashtra, to seek the help of the Mumbai Police Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) for investigations into the Samjhauta Express blast.
“We have been saying that RDX was used in the Samjhauta blast. The latest findings of the ATS could provide us new leads. We will seek the custody of Purohit,” Arora said here.
But officials of the state’s forensic science laboratory at Madhuban near Karnal town said that ammonium nitrate was used in the train blast. They did not confirm whether RDX was also used.
As many as 67 people, mostly Pakistani nationals, lost their lives when bombs ripped two coaches of the peace train between India and Pakistan at Diwana village, 15 km from the industrial city of Panipat in the state. The blast set both coaches on fire on the moving train, burning most passengers inside.
Indian intelligence agencies had blamed Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for the train blasts, saying it was done to derail the bilateral peace process.