ISLAMABAD: Foreign Affairs Secretary Tehmina Janjua informed the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Wednesday that a high-level Indian delegation is scheduled to visit Pakistan in the coming days to discuss, among other issues, matters pertaining to the testimony of 24 Indian witnesses in the case against Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the alleged mastermind of the Mumbai attacks, and seven other suspects.
Ms Janjua and Foreign Office spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal were summoned by the ATC to apprise the court about the progress made on producing the Indian witnesses shortlisted by the Pakistani prosecution last year, to strengthen the case against Lakhvi and other suspects. Ms Janjua told the court that Pakistan had asked the Indian government to produce the 24 Indian witnesses in the Pakistani court. She also said that the ministry had sent the Indian government several reminders in this regard. The court then adjourned proceedings till Dec 6.
The trial of Pakistani suspects in the Mumbai attacks case had virtually come to a standstill after the governments of Pakistan and India had a row over the testimony of these witnesses.
In Jan 2016, the government contacted New Delhi asking it to send the 24 witnesses to Pakistan to testify against the Mumbai attacks suspects, including the alleged mastermind of the attacks. Lakhvi, and the other suspects — Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hammad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younus Anjum — are being tried by the ATC in Islamabad since 2009. In August last year, the Federal Investigation Agency also arrested Sufyan Zafar, the alleged financier of the attack.
The prosecution had completed the testimonies of all 68 Pakistani witnesses seven months ago. By the time the ATC was about to conclude the proceedings, the prosecution filed an application for the production of survivors of the Mumbai attacks, the doctors who conducted the post-mortem examination of the deceased persons, terrorists and eyewitnesses.
In 2012 and 2013, the Indian government had constituted a commission to record the statements of witnesses but only managed to record the statements of four of them. They included RV Sawant Waghule, the magistrate who recorded Ajmal Kasab’s confessional statement, Ramesh Mahale, chief investigation officer of the case, and Ganesh Dhunraj and Chintaman Mohite, the doctors who conducted the post-mortem examination of the bodies of terrorists killed in the attacks.
Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2017
