Thimpu, Feb. 5: India on Saturday rejected Pakistan's attempt to link Mumbai attacks to the Samjhauta Express blast, saying there was “no comparison” between the two incidents and rubbished the contention that the pace of probe into the cross-border train attack had been slow.
On the eve of the talks between Ms Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Mr Salman Bashir, Islamabad on Saturday came out with a provocative statement saying that India's handling of the case showed that it lacked “courage to unearth culpability of Hindu extremists”.
India's handling of the Samjhauta Express case “doesn't inspire much hope”, Mr Abdul Basit, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman said.
The spokesman emphasised that India “needs to bridge the gap between what it says and what it does”.
However, sources said that in the case of the Mumbai attacks the leads were “so direct” and “involvement so clear” that probe could move faster but the same was not true for the Samjhauta blast incident,” sources said while reacting to Pakistan’s questions.
While pointing to the clear leads in the Mumbai case, the sources asked why the trial was so slow and why several of those accused were still roaming free despite evidence provided against them by India.