Foreign secy, FO spokesperson appear before ATC in Mumbai attacks case

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Secretary Tehmina Jnajua and Foreign Office spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal appeared before an anti-terrorism court on Wednesday in connection with the hearing of a case pertaining to the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Janjua told the judge that high-level meetings between Pakistani and Indian officials will be held soon, where the issue of 27 Indian witnesses would be discussed.

The ATC issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of witness Nazrul Sharif over his failure to appear before it. A witness, Abdul Samad, recorded his statement in the case.

The hearing of the case was adjourned until December 6.

Last year, the Pakistani authorities had approached the Indian government to send 27 witnesses to Pakistan to record their testimonies in the case, but since then no progress was made in this regard.

The seven suspects, including Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi,  Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hammad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younus Anjum are being tried by the ATC.

The Mumbai attacks left 166 people dead and were blamed on banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). India has long seethed at Pakistan’s failure to hand over or prosecute the accused  planning and organizing terrorist attacks.

Lakhvi, the alleged mastermind of the attacks, and six other suspects have been charged in Pakistan but their cases have made virtually no progress in more than five years.