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Pakistan put forth its condition when Shinde raised the issue of speeding up the trial against the seven jailed Pakistani accused including LeT commanders Zakir-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Zarar Shah, Abu Al Qama and others.
NEW DELHI: Pakistan has linked India's demand for speeding up the 26/11 trial with New Delhi's decision on allowing a Pakistani judicial commission to visit Mumbai for a second time to cross-examine four witnesses.
Islamabad's condition was articulated by Pakistani interior minister Rehman Malik when he met his Indian counterpart Sushil Kumar Shinde on the sidelines of the Saarc interior/home ministers' meeting in Maldives on Tuesday.
Malik put forward the condition while referring to a Pakistani trial court order which rejected the findings of the judicial commission that visited Mumbai in March. The court had in July said that the report of the panel had no "evidential value" as it was not allowed to cross-examine the four witnesses and asked the panel to visit India again.
The four witnesses who are supposed to be quizzed by the panel include the magistrate who recorded the confessional statement of arrested Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist Azmal Kasab, the investigating officer of the 26/11 case and two doctors who conducted the postmortem of the nine slain terrorists.
Referring to Malik's remarks that his country was committed "to ensure that the trials in Pakistan, with regard to the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, would be taken to their logical conclusion", an official statement said, "In this regard, he (Malik) mentioned the need for India to receive a visit by the judicial commission of Pakistan."
The statement, issued after the Shinde-Malik meeting on Tuesday, added, "The Indian home minister assured his counterpart of an early response to this request."
Pakistan put forth its condition when Shinde raised the issue of speeding up the trial against the seven jailed Pakistani accused including LeT commanders Zakir-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Zarar Shah, Abu Al Qama and others.
Shinde, during his first meeting with Malik, also referred to other matters/demands including handing over voice samples of the handlers of the Mumbai attackers, stopping cross-border terrorism and acting on dossiers handed over to Islamabad by New Delhi on LeT chief Hafiz Saeed, Indian Mujahideen fugitives and Khalistani terrorists.
On the positive side, both countries agreed that the newly-signed liberalized bilateral visa agreement "would be operationalized at a mutually agreed date, after the notification of the visa rules and regulations by the respective governments". Both ministers also invited each other to visit their respective countries and accepted the invites.
Islamabad's insistence on sending the judicial panel to cross-examine the witnesses may add fuel to the fire at the time when a section within the government - which has been discussing pros and cons of allowing the second visit of the commission - is not convinced of the Pakistani court's contention on evidence.
Officials here said the accused were in Pakistan, conspiracy was hatched in Pakistan, the terrorists were from Pakistan, the training took place in Pakistan, all logistics for the attack were gathered in that country, the boat was a Pakistani one and yet they could not gather any evidence there.
"The last-mile link-up is in India. What about the first part of the whole conspiracy which was done in Pakistan," an official said.
He also said that if the panel was allowed to cross-examine the four, there was no guarantee that the court would not ask for cross-examination of all 500 witnesses, around 50 doctors who had conducted the postmortem of all 166 victims of the massacre...................http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JTS8yMDEyLzA5LzI3I0FyMDE1MDA=&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom
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