Agencies
NEW DELHI, JULY 12
IT seems that PM Narendra Modi’s talks with Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Russia’s Ufa might not do much in expediting the Mumbai attacks trial.
The prosecution team of the 26/11 attacks’ main accused and LeT(Lashkar-e-Toiba) commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi has closed the door on the issue of obtaining his voice sample.
According to the PTI, Lakhvi’s prosecution team’s chief Chaudhry Azhar has confirmed that Pakistan will not file a fresh petition in an anti-terrorism court requesting for obtaining his voice sample as “no such law exists”.
“The issue of obtaining voice sample of Lakhvi has been over. We had filed an application in the trial court in 2011, seeking voice sample of Lakhvi but the judge (Malik Akram Awan) had dismissed it on the ground that there is no such law that allows obtaining of voice sample of an accused,” Chaudhry told PTI.
“We have told India in writing that there was no law in Pakistan that allows obtaining a voice sample of an accused. Even there is no such law in India and the USA,” Chaudhry added speaking to the PTI.
The report may upset India especially after PM Narendra Modi met Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif in the Russian city of Ufa on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit and among other things decided to expedite the trial of Mumbai terror attacks case.
In Russia’s Ufa, both sides agreed to discuss ways and means to expedite the Mumbai case trial, including additional information like providing voice samples.
However, the stalemate over securing voice samples of Lakhvi looks far from being resolved as Pakistani law necessitates the consent of the accused for voice sample.
Recently, a Pakistani anti-terrorism court also exempted the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attack from appearing in-person after the LeT operations commander cited “serious threats to his life.”
The Mumbai attack mastermind, who was released from Adiala Jail on April 10 on bail, has skipped appearance in the court on several occasions in the past, though the law mandates for an accused on bail to appear in a court hearing.
He was was released from Adiala Jail after the Lahore High Court suspended his detention under a security act. The Islamabad High Court in mid April had ordered the trial court to conclude the Mumbai attack case in two months.
The two-month deadline has passed but the pace of the case had not yet picked up.
Lakhvi is living at an undisclosed location since his release.
Lakhvi and six other accused - Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younis Anjum - have been charged in 2009 with planning and executing the Mumbai attack in November, 2008 that left 166 people dead.
