India on Thursday said it will consider a formal request, if and when received, from Pakistan conveying details of 24 witnesses it wants to examine for the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case, days after
India on Thursday said it will consider a formal request, if and when received, from Pakistan conveying details of 24 witnesses it wants to examine for the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case, days after Islamabad maintained it has written regarding the same to New Delhi. In another development, meanwhile, India and the United States discussed the issue of terrorism and the role of Pakistan-based terror outfit JeM and its chief Maulana Masood Azhar during the just-concluded visit of foreign secretary S. Jaishankar to the US.
“We have repeatedly stressed that 99 per cent of the evidence regarding the 26/11 Mumbai attacks lie in Pakistan. A judicial commission from Pakistan visited India in 2012 and 2013 and recorded statements of 4 prosecution witnesses who were also allowed to be cross examined in 2013. The list of the witnesses to be examined by the judicial commission had been agreed mutually between the two governments as were the terms of reference of the judicial commission,” ministry of external affairs (MEA) spokesperson Vikas Swarup said. “If and when, we receive a formal request from Pakistan conveying details of these 24 witnesses, we will consider it,” the spokesperson added.
According to news agency reports, Pakistani prosecution chief Chaudhry Azhar had issued a statement that his foreign ministry has written to the Indian government asking it to send all 24 Indian witnesses to Pakistan for recording statements in the trial court in the Mumbai attack case.
Mr Azhar had apparently said the Anti-Terrorism Court, Islamabad, has already completed recording the statements of all Pakistani witnesses in the case which has been underway in the country for more than six years.
“Now the ball is in India’s court. The Indian government should send all Indian witnesses of the Mumbai case to Pakistan to record their statements so that the trial could further move ahead,” Mr Azhar said.
It may be recalled that after the Pathankot terror attack in January this year, India has written to the Chair of the UN “1267 Sanctions Committee” to include the name of Maulana Masood Azhar on the sanctions list. The Indian envoy in the UN despatched the letter on February 26. India has argued that it is a great anomaly that the organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed is already listed on the sanctions list, but not its leader Maulana Masood Azhar.
