Upset with the slow pace of progress in the 26/11 Mumbai trial going on in Pakistan, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar has written to his Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Ahmad Choudhry giving suggestions on how to conclude the trial at the earliest.
The letter was sent around a time when Pakistan’s Federal Investigating Agency (FIA) dropped charges against lashkar-e-Tayyeba terrorist Sufiyan Zafar for lack of evidence in this case.
The letter by Foreign Secretary, sent on September 6, was delivered to Chaudhry on September 9 by the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad Gautam Bambawale. However, India is yet to get a response on this letter.
While the Government didn’t elaborate on the suggestions, sources indicated it could be sending a Judicial Commission to India to examine evidences that Pakistan has been asking New Delhi to handover. These include GPS, satellite-cell phones and weapons etc used by terrorists.
Pak wants India to hand over these material evidences to it along with recovery memos. It claims that in the absence of these it still does not have much in hand to move ahead in the case.
Underlining that the trial in Pakistan has not progressed expeditiously, although it will be eight years soon since the attack, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup said the Foreign Secretary’s step was prompted by the delay in bringing to book the persons in Pakistan responsible for the Mumbai terror attack. “As you know, the entire attack was planned from Pakistan, was perpetrated by Pakistani nationals, all the evidence are in Pakistan, but eight years have passed and trial is happening at a snail’s pace,” he said.
According to Swarup, if Pakistan is serious about bringing to justice the perpetrators of the attack, it must act on the suggestions as India’s focus is to check terrorism and the Government wants to bring the Mumbai case trial to expeditious conclusion. “We are prepared to offer suggestions on how it can be done through the proper legal channels,” he said.
Sufayan Zafar was accused of financing Rs14,800 crore for the attack and providing
Rs3.98 crore to co-accused Shahid Jameel Riaz prior to the attack. Zafar was hiding after being declared proclaimed offender in the Mumbai case. He was arrested early last month from his hideout in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
A resident of Gujranwala district of Punjab, approximately 80 km from lahore, Zafar was among 21 absconding suspects wanted in this high-profile case. Six suspects —Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hammad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younus Anjum—have been lodged in the Adiyala Jail, Rawalpindi, since 2009 for abetment to murder, attempted murder, planning and executing the Mumbai attacks.