Trial of Mumbai terror attack suspects may begin next week: Pakistan

Islamabad, July 12: Ahead of talks with India next week, Pakistan said on Saturday its investigation into the Mumbai terrorist attacks was “almost” complete and that the arrested suspects would be likely put on trial next week.

It also sought to beat back Indian accusations it was going slow on the probe by stating that it was New Delhi that had caused the delay by not replying quickly enough to its questions on the attacks.

Hours after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he was approaching his meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani on the NAM summit sidelines in Egypt in the hope that Islamabad would act against the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry handed over to acting Indian High Commissioner Manpreet Vohra a 36-page “dossier,” mainly comprising an update of all the actions taken by it thus far in the Mumbai case.

Official sources said the dossier also included a smaller portion asking for four pieces of additional material from India.

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said a dossier pertaining to the Mumbai attacks probe had been given to the Indian official.

“Separately, India has been asked to provide further evidence required for legal and judicial process,” it said.

But Interior Minister Rehman Malik, who also met the Indian diplomat earlier, indicated that Pakistani investigators already had all the important evidence.

“Investigations [by Pakistan] are almost complete and we have collected all material evidence,” he told a press conference here.

Five persons had been arrested so far and the Federal Investigations Agency, which is probing the attacks on this side were looking for 12 more suspects, he said.

“The trial of the five accused, who have been arrested, is probably going to start next week,” he said. “We are pretty sure that based on the evidence which our investigators have collected, the culprits will be punished.”

The proceedings in the Rawalpindi-based Anti-Terror Court 2, where proceedings have been initiated against the five, have been repeatedly adjourned since May 22 because of the unavailability of a judge for the court.

But official sources said a judge was expected to be in place by the next hearing, which is fixed for July 18. The court may formally indict the five men, including Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the operations commander of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, at the hearing.

Mr. Malik said Pakistan had “done [its] job professionally, efficiently and we mean business.”

The Minister said no one should doubt Pakistan’s seriousness in the matter, and referring to Indian accusations of delay, he said: “The delay was not on the part of Pakistan, it was on the part of India,” in providing the information that Islamabad had sought in order to further its own investigations.

“Any accusation coming from India that Pakistan is not serious, I appeal to them to stop it,” he said

Reinforcing the impression that Pakistan is seeking to set off the Mumbai attacks against the 2007 Samjhauta Express attack in which most of the dead were Pakistanis, and for which a Hindu extremist outfit was being investigated, Mr. Malik said he had raised the issue during his meeting with the Indian envoy.

Many in Pakistan still believe that the killing of police official Hemant Karkare during the Mumbai terror spree was a deliberately planned assassination, as he was in charge of the Samjhauta investigations.

“Just like people in India are asking for information on Mumbai attacks, my people are asking me, why India is not giving us information on Samjhauta Express attack,” Mr. Malik said

–Agencies