The burning train to Pakistan

NEW DELHI: The Indo-Pak friendship vehicle, the Samjhauta Express, became the target of a terror attack on Sunday night as subversive elements triggered an explosion in two of its bogies, causing a major fire that left more than 66 passengers, including several Pakistanis, dead, and many injured.

The explosive used was a deadly mix of highly-inflammable kerosene, sulphur and potassium nitrate. The terrorists’ choice of explosives and the timing of the attack show that the purpose was essentially to cause maximum damage in the middle of the night, when most passengers were asleep.

Given that it came ahead of a visit by Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasoori, and the maiden meeting of the Indo-Pak joint terror mechanism, the blast is being seen as an attempt to derail the ongoing bilateral peace process.

Though the kerosene-sulphur-potassium nitrate cocktail of explosives has been used in terror attacks before, all that the intelligence agencies are willing to share so far is the ingredients used in the blast are commonly available. This does not rule out the possibility of the explosives having been procured locally, either by a Pakistani-based terror outfit like LeT or Jaish-e-Mohammad or by their local fronts here.

No terror outfit has so far claimed responsibility for the blast, which is hardly a surprise as terror outfits now seldom own up attacks on civilians. Yet, the fact that Sunday’s train attack came barely a fortnight after the railway master at Old Delhi railway station received an anonymous letter threatening serial blasts in the Capital if the Parliament attack convict, Mohammad Afzal’s sentence was not taken back, is worrying enough and has become a matter of investigation.

The threat letter, which was later dismissed by the police as “mischief”, is claimed to have been sent on behalf of LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Al Qaida. The blasts were, in all probability, caused by explosives planted in Delhi, from where the train originates and has an uninterrupted run till Attari.

This speaks volumes about the lax security levels at the railway stations in the Capital. It seems that just a handful of RPF jawans were on duty on Sunday night to guard the ill-fated train, and that the passengers’ luggage was not subjected to rigorous security checks before they boarded the train.

Railway minister Lalu Prasad virtually admitted to the security lapse, saying “though there are metal detectors, we don’t have the equipment to check what is inside the luggage... we can’t deny that lapse. We will accept if there is any fault on the part of the Railways. We don’t want to cover up”.

Even as the central security agencies, the Delhi police and the Haryana police worked in tandem to investigate the sabotage angle, the Centre on Monday dashed off a general advisory to all states and UTs warning of more terror attacks and advising them to accordingly upgrade their security cover. The advisory is also believed to have asked states to focus on maintaining communal harmony.