Ali is the most important witness of the Samjhauta Blasts. He was the one who saw the suspects, heard what they said and told investigators how they looked like. Ali was taken to the blast site near Diwana and the burnt bogies where he helped the investigators reconstruct the sequence of events.

Ali gave a detailed account of what happened on the train minutes before the blasts. He said that though he saw two men sitting at the door, only one of them entered into an altercation with RPF constable Kashmir Singh and he saw only one of them get down from the train.

It was believed that both suspects got down together, but Ali claims he only saw one get down when the train slowed down. “There was an argument between Sardarji (RPF constable Kashmir Singh who died in the blast) and one of the suspects. The suspect who was arguing got down from the train around 20-25 minutes after it had started from Delhi. Kambakht hans raha tha utarte wakht (he was smiling when he got down). I did not see the other person get down,” he said. At the Old Delhi railway station, Ali said he met Kashmir Singh as he was sitting on a chair near the door. “I asked him, ‘Sardar sa’ab khana kha lo (why don’t you have food?)’. When the train started I heard the Sardarji arguing with one of the men who told the RPF constable that he wanted to go to Ahmedabad. Sardarji ko gussa aaya aur kaha tumhe nahi pata yeh international train hai aur Attari jati hai,” Ali recalled.

Kashmir Singh then asked him to get down from the train as it slowed down. “Fifteen minutes after the man with thin lips got down from the train, there was a loud noise. At first, I thought some oil tanker below the bogey might have burst. But soon I started choking. I ran to open the door and window as even a minor delay would have cost me my life,” he said.

Ali said he first got down from the train as it stopped and then climbed again to save his family. “My wife somehow pushed some people ahead as the passage was blocked and there was total chaos. Her hair had caught fire. I somehow managed to get down from the train, but could not then muster the courage to get back to the train. People helped the Sardarji but none came forward to help my children,” he said.

Ali was brought to the civil hospital last night along with his wife Rukhsana and one-year-old daughter Aksa. He identified bodies of his 15-year-old daughter Ayesha and son Rehman (8) yesterday. The bodies of other three children Mohammed Bilal (12), Amir Hamza (10) and Asma (8) were identified.