Swami Aseemanand and Kamal Chauhan, suspects in the Samjhauta blasts and lodged in Ambala jail, started 72-hour fast on Wednesday in protest against union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde's statement on Hindu terrorism.
On February 18, 2007, two improvised-explosive devices (IEDs) had exploded on the Lahore-bound Samjhauta Express near Dewana railway station, Panipat, killing 68 people and injuring 12. Most of the victims were Pakistanis.

Recently, Bharat Bhai, who is a suspect in the Ajmer blast case, went on fast in a Jaipur jail. He had to be admitted to a hospital and broke his fast after a BJP legislator offering him juice.

The jail authorities in Ambala have made arrangements for suspects' medical check-up three times a day. On Wednesday, local leaders from Panchkula visited the two.

Assemanand and Chauhan had moved recently an application before a National Investigation Agency (NIA) court where they had called for action against Shinde for issuing statements when cases against them were still pending.

The two said they were humiliated deeply, and added that with motive of 'vote bank politics', Shinde had dubbed the entire Hindu community terrorists. "The insinuations against Hindus as terrorists is (sic) a term derived from the Congress lexicon, concerned with the sole motive to communalise the India polity," they had submitted in the court.