ISLAMABAD: During Tuesday’s hearing of the Mumbai attack case, the Islamabad anti-terrorist court (ATC) ordered the government of Pakistan to inform it of details relating to the departure of a panel of Pakistani lawyers to India along with the appointment of a special judge for the visit by August 31, DawnNews reported.
ATC judge Atiqur Rehman had recently directed the authorities to arrange for the panel’s visit to India to cross-examine four Indian witnesses in the Mumbai attack case.
Rehman also presided the hearing of the case on Tuesday.
The defendants’ lawyers filed objections against the panel’s intended trip to India.
They raised concerns regarding the proposed trip, stating that the security of the panel should be ensured. They also demanded that India provide the panel with the services of a translator during the visit.
They moreover stated that the panel should be given the opportunity to properly examine the four witnesses.
The panel of lawyers would cross-examine four witnesses — Magistrate R.V. Sawant Waghule, who recorded the confessional statement of Ajmal Kasab; Ramesh Mahale, chief investigating officer of the case; and Ganesh Dhunraj and Chintaman Mohite, the two doctors who carried out the post-mortem of the slain assailants.
The panel had in March 2012 recorded the statements of these witnesses but the ATC in July 2012 declared the proceedings of the Mumbai commission illegal after the defence counsels pointed out that S.S. Shinde, the presiding officer of the Mumbai commission, did not allow the cross examining of the Indian witnesses.
Addressing the objections put forth by the defendants’ lawyers today, the court directed the federation to apprise it of the panel’s schedule of visit to India as well as to inform it on the appointment of a special judge for the witnesses’ examination. The federation has been directed to inform the court on the said details at the coming hearing of the case.
Adjourning the hearing to August 31, the court ordered that full security be provided to Federal Investigation Agency’s special prosecutor Mohammad Azhar Chaudhry.
On November 26, 2008, 10 gunmen laid siege to the city of Mumbai in attacks that lasted nearly three days. It was the deadliest militant onslaught on Indian soil since independence, killing 166 people.