New Delhi : India on Friday rubbished Pakistan’s claims that a ‘fresh’ letter has been sent to New Delhi asking for ‘additional evidences’ to draw an early conclusion of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
Asserting that India remains committed to provide complete cooperation to Pakistan in terms of expediting the trial in the 26/11 attacks, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) official spokesperson Vikas Swarup stated that no recent communication has been received from Islamabad in this regard.
“Pakistan has claimed that their Foreign Secretary has written to their Indian counterpart. No fresh letter has been received in this regard. What he is referring to, is a letter that was written in September last year and our Foreign Secretary replied to that letter,” he said.
Talking about the list of ’24 witnesses’ demanded by Pakistan to speed up the trial, Swarup added that India has not received any fresh communication in that regard as well.
However, he added that one can expect further communication between both nations in the coming days because of India’s commitment to bring the trail to a speedy conclusion.
The MEA’s statement comes after Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said yesterday that Pakistan has written to India asking for ‘additional evidences’ to draw an early conclusion of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks in which Lashkar-e-Taiba operations commander Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi and six others are accused.
“The Foreign Secretary had written to Indian Foreign Secretary regarding evidence required for early conclusion of Mumbai trial. We have said that we require additional evidence. The response from the Indian side is still awaited,” he said.
Pakistan arrested seven LeT linked militants, including Lakhvi, for their role in the 2008 Mumbai attack in which 166 people were killed.
Mumbai attack mastermind Lakhvi, Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younis Anjum are accused of abetment to murder, planning and executing the Mumbai attack.
New Delhi has been urging Islamabad to complete the trial at the earliest. It has said that enough evidence has been shared with Islamabad to prosecute the accused.
The case has been going on in the country for more than six years.
On November 26, 2008, 10 Pakistani terrorist entered Mumbai from the Arabian sea front and went on a carnage killing and injuring a total of 466 people. (ANI)