New Delhi, Feb 9, 2012: After dilly-dallying for long, Pakistan has
suggested fresh dates for the arrival of its judicial panel to record
statements of key officials in the probe of Mumbai terror attack in 2008.
Earlier, Islamabad had cancelled its scheduled visit beginning
February 3 at the eleventh hour without citing any reasons. In a fresh
communication on Thursday, Pakistan has indicated that any date after February
13 will be feasible for the Judicial Commission.
However, the authorities in India said that any concrete schedule
can be announced only after taking fresh dates from the Mumbai court hearing
the case.
The visit of the judicial panel is crucial as it
would expedite the trial of Lashkar-e-Toiba’s operation commander
Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, who planned the Mumbai terror attack on November26, 2008
that played before the world for the next three days as 10 armed terrorists
brutally killed over 170 people.
Lakhvi, along with seven other planners, is being
prosecuted at a Rawalpindi court and four judges have already been changed
since the hearing for the case began in 2009.
During its three day visit, the Pakistani panel was
to take statements of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate RV Sawant
Waghule, who recorded confessional statement of Ajmal Kasab, investigating
officer of the case Ramesh Mahale and the doctor who carried out post-mortem of
the terrorists.
After initially refusing to accept the hands of
Pakistani terrorists behind the attack despite the strong testimony of Kasab –
the lone surviving executor of the sinister attack, Pakistan agreed to send a
panel essentially to tie the loose ends in the case.
Pakistan has
named the members of the panel through a gazette notification. The delegation
scheduled to come included Khalid Qureshi, the head of the Federal
Investigation Agency's Special Investigation Group, and Muhammad Azhar Chaudhry
and Chaudhry Zulifqar-- the two main prosecutors.
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