The Pakistani panel investigating the 2008 Mumbai attacks has completed its proceedings in Mumbai, but may make little headway after the commission was not allowed to interrogate Ajmal Kasab or cross-examine other witnesses.
An eight-member panel of defence lawyers, prosecutors and a court official had reached India on March 14 to record the statements of the chief investigator and magistrate who had interrogated Kasab and doctors who had conducted autopsies on terrorists and victims. Ajmal Kasab is the lone surviving gunman of the 2008 attacks in Mumbai that killed 166 people.
“The Pakistani judicial commission was not allowed to cross-examine the chief investigator, magistrate and doctors,” an official said.
Khawaja Harris Ahmed, counsel for Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and others accused in Pakistan, was also not allowed to cross-question witnesses despite his constitutional right to do so.
When the Pakistani team insisted that it be given the chance to cross-examine, Indian officials angrily said the panel had no such mandate although the chief metropolitan magistrate had allowed the defence lawyers as well as prosecutors to be questioned, a member from the Pakistani side said.
The chief investigate officer in India has briefed the panel about Kasab’s arrest. A panel member said the proceedings were completed in two days and details of the investigations will now be sent by Pakistan to the Indian government.
The visit which was the first of its kind comes after Pakistan had indicted seven alleged conspirators in 2009. Investigators have also said that they need to gather more evidence in India before proceeding with the case in a Pakistani court. But New Delhi says Pakistan’s attempts at prosecution have been a ‘façade’ and insists it has already handed over enough evidence to convict the accused.
The panel will leave India on Wednesday because of a delay in flights.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 20th, 2012.
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