Verdict in the Samjhauta Express blast case has been deferred to March 14, after a Pakistan national filed an application in the NIA court to depose in the case as a witness. Rahila Wakeel, a resident of Pakistan's Hafizabad district, submitted before a court of judge Jagdeep Singh through her advocate Momin Malik that all 13 witnesses in Pakistan were ready to appear before the court and record their evidence.
"Without their evidence, the trial cannot be declared on merit. We request the court to accept the submission. If these witnesses are not granted a chance to depose in court, it will be an irreparable loss to the victims and the witnesses," read the document produced in court.
Rahila's father Muhammad was among the 68 persons who died in the 2007 blast. She also claimed that neither she nor any other witnesses from her country received any summons from the court. "No visa was granted to the witnesses to pursue their evidence, and they also did not have any knowledge about the stage the ongoing case was at because no proper summons were served to them," she said.
The application, if accepted by court, has the potential to reopen the trial.
The blast hit the Samjhauta Express train on February 18, 2007, killing 68 persons, most of them Pakistan nationals. Over 290 witnesses were listed during trial in the case, of whom, 13 Pakistani nationals failed to appear before court and 30 turned hostile.
