ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday dismissed the government’s petitions seeking clippings of the voices of the alleged masterminds of the Mumbai attacks and of six other suspects in the case due to non-prosecution.

The prosecution was asking for the voice samples of the suspects to compare it with the communication intercepted by Indian intelligence and then present it before the anti-terrorism court (ATC) as evidence against the seven suspected for the November 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Earlier on September 12, 2012 the same court had dismissed two other petitions, one asking for the voice samples of the seven suspects in the Mumbai attacks’ case and the second filed to declare Ajmal Kasab and Faheem Ansari as absconders in the case under trial by the ATC of Islamabad.

These petitions were dismissed in 2012 because when the court took up the matter, the prosecution had not appeared in court to argue the case.

After the dismissal, the prosecution had filed petitions for reviving the case.

According to the first petition, Indian intelligence agencies had claimed to have intercepted communication between the suspects and the terrorists in connection with the Mumbai attacks in 2008. In the recorded intercepts, the suspects are alleged to be instructing the terrorists.

The petition continues that the ATC had first been petitioned to obtain the voice samples of the accused confined at Adiala Jail, but the court had rejected the plea on May 8, 2010.

The petition had argued that the samples were essential for concluding the investigation of this high profile case.

The second petition had requested the court to declare Ajmal Kasab and Faheem Ansari absconders in order to meet legal formalities.

It contended that unless the court declared the two men absconders the trial against them will remain ‘inconclusive’ as both have been cited as accused in the Mumbai attacks case by the Indian Authorities and that they were also wanted by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) which was probing the case for the attack in Mumbai in Pakistan.

To end investigations against both Kasab and Ansari, the investigation agency required the court to declare them absconders.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2016