PAKISTAN ASKS INDIA TO SEND 26/11 WITNESSES

Pakistan has asked New Delhi to send all the 24 Indian witnesses to depose before the anti-terrorism court hearing the 26/11 Mumbai attack case, the chief prosecutor in the high-profile case said Sunday.

LAHORE: Pakistan has asked India to send all the 24 Indian witnesses to depose before the anti-terrorism court holding the Mumbai attack trial, the chief prosecutor in the case said on Sunday.

“The foreign ministry has written to the Indian government asking it to send all 24 Indian witnesses to Pakistan for recording statements in the trial court in the Mumbai attack case,” prosecution chief Chaudhry Azhar told PTI.

Pakistan sources said India has remained silent on sending witnesses to face a court of law there. “In September we had written to MEA about the need to examine Indian witnesses before a court in Pakistan. But we got no response”.

Officials in Indian ministry of external affairs (MEA) did not respond to the statements.

Azhar said the Anti-Terrorism Court Islamabad has already completed recording the statements of all Pakistani witnesses in the case which has been underway in the country for more than six years.

“Now the ball is in India’s court. The Indian government should send all Indian witnesses of the Mumbai case to Pakistan to record their statements so that the trial could further move ahead,” said Azhar, who is also a special prosecutor of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

Last month, the court, which is holding the trial of the seven accused including Mumbai attack mastermind and LeT operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, had ordered the FIA to present all 24 Indian witnesses in court to record their statements.

An 8-member Pakistani judicial commission had visited India in 2012 on behalf of the Pakistani anti-terrorism court (ATC).

The statements of the Indian witnesses were supposed to be used as evidence in the trial.

However, Lakhvi’s lawyer had challenged the commission’s proceedings because a judge in Mumbai did not let its members cross-examine witnesses.

The trial court here subsequently declared the proceedings of the commission illegal.