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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Pakistanis to visit India over Mumbai prosecutionISLAMABAD: Investigators and lawyers from Pakistan will reportedly visit India next month to gather more evidence for the prosecution of seven suspects linked to the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Pakistan indicted seven alleged perpetrators over the attacks, but says that its commission needs to gather more evidence in India. Delhi has called for “decisive” action from Pakistan against the perpetrators of the attacks and accuses its efforts so far of being a “façade”, saying it has already handed over enough evidence to convict the accused men.
"If all goes well, the visit will take place between February 4 to February 10," senior public prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali told AFP. Both sides, he said, agreed that the Pakistani commission could visit India between February 1 to February 10 to cross-examine witnesses of the carnage. But Ali said there is a "possibility that the visit may be delayed" by the death of the lawyer representing the alleged mastermind, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.X
The deceased's son, Khwaja Harris Ahmad, has applied to replace his father and the court would take up the issue on February 4, Ali said. The commission is made up of two senior prosecutors, a director from the Federal Investigation Agency and five lawyers representing the suspects. "We can proceed to India before February 10 if our authorities address all the legal requirements," Ahmad told AFP. Pakistan had wanted Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving gunman from the Mumbai attacks, to testify. But Ahmad said Kasab, who has appealed a death sentence in India, was not included on the list of witnesses whom the panel wished to cross-examine. afp
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk