26/11: Pak silent on visit of its judicial panel

New Delhi: Pakistan has not yet conveyed to India when its judicial commission will visit here to take the statement of the magistrate who had recorded the confessional statement of Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist of 26/11 attack, to pursue the case there.

During the Home Secretary-level talks held in New Delhi in March, India agreed to a Pakistani proposal to host a judicial commission of that country 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 26/11 case in Pakistan and promised at the Home Secretary-level talks that they would do so within six weeks- by May 15.

"But more than eight weeks after the Home Secretary level talks, nothing has been heard from Islamabad on the proposed judicial commission's visit to India," an official said.

The government has already conveyed to the Bombay High Court that Sawant and Waghule should be available for questioning by the Pakistani commission.

The Pakistani commission wants to interview the Indian officials in connection with the trial of seven Pakistani suspects, currently in a jail in that country, in 26/11 Mumbai attacks case.

Pakistan's contention is that the charges against the seven Lashkar-e-Taiba activists, 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.

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.

India also wants to send a commission to Pakistan to question the 26/11 accused like Lakhvi after taking permission from a court here.

"We can do that only after filing a chargesheet against LeT operative David Headley, who conducted the recce of the 26/11 targets," an official said.

The National Investigation Agency will file the additional chargesheet when it will get some more documents from the United States. The documents will be received when the trial of the Headley's accomplice Tawahhur Rana is over.