A Pakistani anti-terrorism court holding the trial of the seven Mumbai attack accused, including mastermind Zaki-ur Rehman lakhvi, today summoned seven witnesses for the next hearing after the case record was finally submitted to it.
The Islamabad High Court finally sent back the record of the Mumbai attack case to the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC), also in Islamabad, after over four months when it was told that the case had moved "an inch" since the record was lying with the IHC.
The Mumbai case record was transferred to the IHC in the first week of January when the federal government challenged the bail to Mumbai attack mastermind Zaki-ur Rehman lakhvi.
Virtually no proceedings of the case had been held since the trial court granted bail to him on December 14, 2014. "The ATC Islamabad which held the hearing at Adiala Jail Rawalpindi on Tuesday summoned seven official and private witnesses for the next hearing on May 27 to record their statements. The trial court summoned the witnesses only after the case record was today retrieved from the IHC and presented before the ATC," a senior court official said after the hearing. The official expressed the hope that after retrieving the case record from the IHC, the trial court hearings would not be marred by any another issue.
During Tuesday's hearing, the Inspector General Police, Islamabad also submitted a reply to the court regarding the alleged security threats to lakhvi. "The argument on lakhvi's plea to exempt him from attending the hearings will also be held during the next hearing," the official said.