BISHKEK: Pakistan has informed India that it has named a new prosecutor for the much-delayed Mumbai attacks trial and will send a judicial commission on September 23 to cross-examine key Indian witnesses, meeting New Delhi’s demand for substantive progress in the probe.
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid today said Sartaj Aziz, Advisor to the Pakistani Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, had informed him about these developments during an informal chat in the Kyrgyzstan capital last night.
“We expected and hoped that the prosecutor would be soon appointed – the previous prosecutor was assassinated – and also that the evidence collected by the judicial commission can be made available to the (Pakistani) trial court,” said Khurshid, who shared a table with Aziz at an official dinner.
Khurshid, here for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit, also said Aziz told him the judicial panel would travel to Indian on September 23.
“We welcome that and we welcome the appointment of the prosecutor,” he told reporters.
“And we genuinely, honestly hope that now things can proceed faster and that we would see through court proceedings something substantive happening.”
Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali, the prosecutor who was handling the Mumbai attacks case, was shot dead by militants in Islamabad in May.
The report of a Pakistani judicial commission that visited Mumbai last year was not accepted by an anti-terrorism court as its members were not allowed to cross-examine Indian witnesses. The panel’s second visit has been delayed several times this year.
“One emphasis that we have legitimately given is the public sentiment, that expects some movement forward on issues that are very critical for us. And the Mumbai incident is a very tragic and hurtful one, and we want accountability for it,” Khurshid said.
Khurshid said he had a “good” interaction with Aziz. “We had an informal chat. We had a good chat. We have been together here,” he said.
Asked by reporters whether roadblocks for a meeting between the premiers of the two countries in New York later this month had been removed, Khurshid said he had told Aziz there has to be a “conducive atmosphere” for such a meet.
India has been demanding action against perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks and steps to curb the activities of anti-India militant leaders like Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed.
Pakistan has acknowledged that the plot behind the Mumbai attacks was hatched on its soil and arrested seven suspects, including Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
However, their trial which began in early 2009 has progressed at a snail’s pace.-PTI
