No details about visit of Pak's 26/11 commission to India

New Delhi (PTI) Despite its commitment,
Pakistan has failed to convey to India as to when its judicial
commission will visit here to take the statement of the
magistrate, who had recorded the confession of Ajmal Kasab, to
pursue the 26/11 attacks case.
During the Home Secretary-level talks held in New
Delhi in March, India had agreed to host Pakistan's judicial
commission to take statements of Additional Chief Metropolitan
Magistrate R V Sawant Waghule, Investigating Officer Ramesh
Mahale and the doctor who carried out the post-mortem of the
terrorists.
Islamabad has been maintaining that it is necessary to
send the commission to India as part of the judicial process
of the 26/11 case in Pakistan and promised at the Home
Secretary-level talks that they would do so by May 15.
"More than a month after the agreed date, Pakistan has
not been able to convey to us when they are sending the
commission to India," an official said.
The Indian government has already conveyed to the
Bombay High Court that Sawant and Mahale should be available
for questioning by the Pakistani commission.
The commission wants to interview the Indian officials
in connection with the trial of seven Pakistani suspects,
currently in a jail in that country, in the 26/11 Indian
western city Mumbai attacks case.
Pakistan's contention is that the charges against the
seven Lashkar-e-Taiba members, including its operation
commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, are based on Kasab's
statement in Mumbai and hence the magistrate and the IO's
statements were necessary to submit before the anti-terror
court there.
Interestingly, the trial of Lakhvi and other
Pakistanis charged with involvement in Mumbai attacks was
adjourned Saturday for a fortnight as no new judge was
appointed for the Pakistan anti-terrorism court hearing the
case following the transfer of Justice Rana Nisar Ahmed.
This was for the fourth time the judge of the court
was changed. Ahmed, who had been hearing the case since he was
appointed judge of Rawalpindi's anti-terrorist court no. III
in November 2010, was transferred shortly after the last
hearing on June 11.
The development came just a day after Indian Foreign
Secretary Nirupama Rao, who was in Islamabad on Friday for
talks with her counterpart Salman Bashir, said she had
highlighted India's concerns about a "satisfactory closure" of
the Mumbai attacks trial in Pakistan to enable the two
countries " to move on with the process of normalisation".
Rao said the issue of the Mumbai attacks was of
"critical importance" to India and she had talked "about
matters relating to the 26/11 trial and the pending issues
relating to it" during her discussions with Bashir.
India has already provided to Pakistan copies of
Kasab's statement that was recorded in Hindi and Marathi in
the presence of Waghule. An English version is also available
with Pakistan.