ISLAMABAD, Feb 14: An anti-terrorism court on Saturday granted a 14-day remand of seven suspects in the Mumbai attacks to the Federal Investigation Agency.

The suspects, including Lashkar-e-Taiba’s operation commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, were produced before judge Sakhi Mohammed Kahut at an undisclosed location, a security official told Dawn.

Media personnel had been waiting outside the anti-terrorism court where the suspects were expected to appear.

The FIA is expected to submit a charge-sheet against the suspects at the end of the remand. The agency has already conducted preliminary investigations into the case.

Rehman Lakhvi, the alleged mastermind of the attacks, and 12 other suspects were arrested on Dec 7 last year near Muzaffarabad, Azad Kashmir.

Custody of Kasab

Pakistan may ask India for custody of the only gunman to survive the Mumbai attacks, the interior ministry adviser said on Saturday, adds Reuters.

“If investigators recommend it and the court asked for him, then definitely we will do that,” Rehman Malik, Adviser to Prime Minister on Interior, told reporters when asked if Pakistan would seek custody of Ajmal Kasab.

“It’s premature but when the name of a person appears in a (police complaint), he is needed in the case ... We will do it when our investigators think he is needed here.”

A lawyer for the suspects said he might file a high court petition against the government for failing to produce the suspects before the court.

“Under the law these people should have been produced before the court for a remand within 24 hours of the registration of the complaint against them,” lawyer Shahbaz Rajpoot told reporters outside an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi.

“I will consult my clients and after their instructions I may file a petition against the government for keeping them in illegal detention,” he said.