Bharat Rakshak

Only in India!!

The fate of 26/11 trial in Pakistan is again mired in uncertainty with Islamabad failing to communicate to New Delhi exactly when its judicial commission will visit India to record statement of officials linked with the Mumbai attacks. Government sources confirmed on Monday that Pakistan has only conveyed to India that the visit slated for February 3-6 couldn't take place because of some issues "legal in nature".

"We have not heard anything new from Pakistan regarding the proposed visit of a judicial panel," said official sources. The government had earlier indicated to Pakistan that it would be willing to receive the judicial commission in the first 10 days of February after which the Pakistani side had announced that the commission would visit India from February 3 to 6.

"They had then indicated a window of opportunity when this judicial delegation will come," said the source but a day before February 3, Pakistan informed India that they would like to reschedule the panel's visit.

"We have not heard anything since then from Pakistan about the visit. The last communication we have from them is about their intent to reschedule, and that they would come back with fresh dates," he said.

Senior advocate Raju Ramachandran, who has been appointed amicus curiae by the apex court to defend Kasab, had told the bench that he was not a part of the larger conspiracy for waging war against the nation.

Stressing on Kasab's age as an important factor to commute his sentence, he had pleaded for a lenient approach as he was drawn into it as a result of exploitation of religious faith and false ideology.

Maintaining that the prosecution has failed to prove the case against Kasab beyond doubts, he had said that his right against self-incrimination as well as his right to get himself adequately represented by a counsel to defend himself in the case had been violated during the trial.

A special court here on Saturday told the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to initiate the process to produce U.S. citizen David Coleman Headley, his Canadian accomplice Tahawwur Hussain Rana, Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Muhammed Saeed and LeT head of operations Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi before it on March 13, taking cognisance of the charge sheet filed by the agency against them and five other Pakistani nationals for plotting to carry out “spectacular terror attacks on places of iconic importance” in India, including the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.

While Headley and Rana are presently in U.S. custody, Saeed and Lakhvi are believed to be in Pakistan.

On December 24, 2011, the NIA filed a charge sheet under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act against the nine accused.

Others charge-sheeted are: LeT operatives Sajid Majid and Abdur Rehman Hashim, two serving Pakistani Army officers Major Iqbal and Major Sameer Ali, and Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) chief Ilyas Kashmiri. The court which issued non-bailable warrants on July 21, 2010 against them, re-issued them for March 13.

Special Judge H.S. Sharma said: “The taking of cognisance means the point in time when the court takes judicial notice of an offence with a view to initiating proceedings in respect of such offence which appears to have been committed. Only a prima facie view is to be taken…Process to procure the presence of A-1 to A- 4 (Headley, Rana, Saeed, and Lakhvi) on March 13 [should] be initiated. NBWs against A-5 to A-9 (five other accused) have already been issued for that day.”

Headley was arrested by the FBI on October 3, 2009. Mr. Sharma in his order noted that Headley had entered into a plea bargain agreement with U.S. federal prosecutors, and admitted his guilt and the charges against him. The judge also allowed NIA's application seeking issuance of a letter rogatory to Morocco to investigate the whereabouts of Headley's wife, Faiza Outalha, who the agency claims made two visits to India — first in April 2007, and later in the months of June, July and August 2008 — in the run-up to the 26/11 attacks.

LeT, HuJI conspiracy

An NIA statement issued on December 24 when the charge sheet was filed, alleged that the conspiracy was “hatched in or around 2005 by the leaders of the LeT and the HuJI” with the active support and encouragement from serving officers of the Pakistani Army working for the ISI like Major Sameer Ali and Major Iqbal.

“Headley and Rana were placed in a position where they could work for providing tactical, material and financial support in planning and carrying out terrorist attacks in India and other places,” the NIA statement said.

“David Headley made multiple trips to India between September 14, 2006, and March 15, 2009. During his trips he conducted tactical surveillance of potential targets of terrorist attacks. He collected tactical details including video footage of all the places which were attacked during 26/11/2008 in Mumbai. He also collected critical information and videos of places including different Chabad Houses in India, the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, the Mantralaya and the Air India building in Mumbai, and the National Defence College, Delhi,” the NIA alleged.

On Rana, the agency said he was in constant touch with Headley, provided him with financial resources and other support for running an immigration consultancy office in Mumbai which did not process even one case of immigration during its entire period of existence. Rana visited India on November 13, 2008, and left Mumbai “in haste” on November 21, 2008, six days before the Mumbai attack.

The counsels for Pakistani suspects in the Mumbai attack case prior to their India visit for cross examining the prosecution witnesses filed another application with the anti-terrorism court here, seeking statement of the Indian chief investigating officer of the case.

According to Riaz Akram Cheema, one of the defence counsel, the prosecutors had responded to their applications regarding issuance of proper notification of their visit, transferring the record and giving the counsels four CDs of CCTV footage of the attacks.

On Saturday, however, the counsels told the ATC judge, Shahid Rafiq, that they also needed the statement and investigation reports for cross-examining Ramesh Mahale, the chief investigating officer, as well as other three prosecution witnesses – woman magistrate R.V. Sawant Waghule, who had recorded the confessional statement of Ajmal Kasab, and the two doctors who carried out post-mortem on the bodies of the terrorists killed during the attacks. {What cross examination ? The agreement was to record the statements. How can they even cross examine a magistrate ?}

Mr Cheema said the defence counsel requested the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to appoint a Lahore-based coordinator because most of the lawyers were from Lahore. “But contrary to our requests, they appointed a Karachi-based FIA officer who is, interestingly, a prosecution witness in the case and should not be sent along with the panel,” he added.

FIA senior public prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali submitted to the court a new schedule for the visit of the 10-member Pakistani panel to India from March 13.

Earlier, Indian external affairs ministry had sent the schedule for the Mumbai commission to visit India from February 1 to February 10 but due to certain reasons the panel could not go within the stipulated time.

Prosecutor Ali told Dawn that this time both Indian and Pakistani governments had agreed to keep an open-ended schedule because the process of recording of statements and cross examining the four Indian prosecution witnesses might take some time. He added that ideally the process should not be more than of four days.

Regarding the application filed by the defence counsel, he said the investigating officers and doctors had never recorded their statements.

Though the prosecution produced them as their witnesses, they always brought their reports instead of giving statements. He said the defence counsel wanted to further delay the matter but he would answer to their application on the next date of hearing on February 25.

It may be mentioned that the chief justice of Mumbai High Court has nominated S.S. Shinde, the chief metropolitan magistrate Mumbai, as the presiding officer of the Judicial Commission.

In order to conclude the trial of the seven Pakistani suspects, – Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hammad Amin Saddiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younus Anjum – the FIA needed the recording of statements and cross examination of the four Indian prosecution witnesses.

MUMBAI, India — An Indian court on Saturday approved a request by prosecutors to charge an American citizen, David Coleman Headley, in connection with the 2008 terrorist attacks here, according to an official with the National Investigation Agency. The decision, which is the first step in seeking an extradition, sets up a possible confrontation between the United States and India.

Mr. Headley has confessed in the United States to playing a major role in the Mumbai attacks, which killed at least 163 people, but he testified against another man tried in the attack to avoid both the death penalty and extradition to India.

The plea deal has angered many Indians, already frustrated by the slow progress in the investigations into the brazen attack that unfolded over three days and shook this city. So far, only one person has been convicted in the case in India: the sole surviving gunman in the attacks, Ajmal Kasab, who has been sentenced to death.

The court on Saturday also approved charges against seven Pakistanis and another man in the United States, Tahawwur Rana. It was Mr. Rana whom Mr. Headley testified against in a United States court. Mr. Rana was eventually acquitted of helping to plot the Mumbai attacks, but he was found guilty of supporting plans to attack a Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

Pakistan has previously refused to hand over people whom India has accused of plotting the attacks, in which 10 gunmen held Mumbai under siege, terrorizing five-star hotels, a busy train station, a Jewish center, a popular bar and other locations.

The case of Mr. Headley, the son of a Pakistani diplomat and a Philadelphia socialite, has become a particularly delicate flash point in India-United States relations. It has been complicated because of his background, which includes serving as an operative for Lashkar-e Taiba — an Islamic militant group considered a terrorist organization by the United States — as well as an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

In making the case for their plea deal with Mr. Headley, prosecutors have described him as an important source of information about Lashkar-e-Taiba and other extremists. Indian officials, however, have expressed skepticism about Mr. Headley’s cooperation, saying he has only given enough information to save his own life.

...

But the first case of LeT terrorist infiltrating through the sea route was recorded in February 2008. Out of the eight terrorist infiltrators two were arrested by the Jammu & Kashmir police. Abdul Majeed and Mohammad Jameel, suspected LeT militants, were arrested by J&K police from Rajouri in March 2008.

The police interrogation reports reveal that terrorists first breached coastal security along India’s west coast in February 2008. Was this is a dry run for Mumbai 26/11? According to the revelations made the arrested LeT terrorists on February 23, eight LeT militants left a coastal village in Pakistan. Once in Indian waters they were transferred to an Indian fishing boat. Manning this boat were two alleged Indian LeT operatives Asif and Abbas. On shore, the group was met by another Indian LeT operative codenamed Sameer.

The coincidences between the February 2008 infiltration and Mumbai 26/11 are uncanny. J&K police found that Jameel had a student ID card on the name of ‘Dheeraj’ from Chembur in Mumbai. All the terrorists had fake documents from Delhi and Chandigarh and they even had Voter I-cards. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Election Officer B R Sharma said, “The preliminary investigations have revealed that 64 voter cards are not available with us and two have been used by militants.” Similarly, all the Mumbai 26/11 terrorists had college ID cards and other such fake ID documents.

...

My parents ran into an IPS officer while travelling on a train and he said GOI is actually keeping him alive as he is more valuable alive than dead as a constant reminder to our neighbor of their perfidy. Strategic value..

...
The Navy chief, who was bombarded with questions on whether the November 26 terror attacks could have been averted by an alert security establishment, also conceded that the Coast Guard had stopped the hijacked fishing trawler that brought the 10-member gang of jihadis to Mumbai's shore on the preceding night , but were let off after they showed identity cards.

Whatever actionable inputs had come its way, Admiral Mehta said, the Navy had always taken action stoutly. He said the Coast Guard had deployed a large number of its ships off the Gujarat coast and so did the Navy.

``But there is always a first time and we need to be prepared for those times also,'' the Navy chief said, referring to reports that the Coast Guard had intercepted the fishing vessel, Kuber, but let it pass after a check....

racing a terror journey on sea
Sachin Dave, ET Bureau Nov 29, 2008, 02.16am IST

MUMBAI: It was an adventurous sea journey that led the suspected Lashker-e-Taiba attackers to their terror destinations in Mumbai. Around 10 terrorists, unarmed, left for the financial capital on November 21 from an isolated beach in Karachi. Their names: Abu Ali, Fahad, Omar, Shohaib, Umer, Abu Akasha, Ajmal (the sole terrorist detained by the Mumbai police), Ismail, Abdul Rehman alias Bada and Abdul Rehman alias Chhota.

The 10 jihadis travelled some distance before they reached a mid-sea Pakistani vessel on November 22. They abandoned their boat for the Pakistani vessel — which was loaded with arms and ammunition. Once on board, they strapped themselves for action with the terror hardware.

The haversack-wielding terrorists took great care to avoid interception by marine commandos or coast guard personnel, and hijacked an Indian fishing trawler, MV Kuber, once they entered the Indian waters on November 23.

They gunned down four of the five persons aboard MV Kuber, registered in Porbunder, Gujarat, and dumped the bodies before proceeding with their sea journey through Indian waters. After travelling with the sole surviving member of the MV Kuber crew, Amarjeet, they bumped him off closer to Mumbai.

The body was later found on an abandoned vessel, some five nautical miles off the Mumbai coast. The terrorists, after abandoning the fishing trawler belonging to Porbunder fisherman Vinod Masani, took a smaller boat and landed at Badhwar Park near Cuffe Parade on Wednesday.

From there, they split into five groups and headed for their respective terror destinations. While two of them, Akmal and Ismail, went to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, two more groups wound their way to Leopold Cafe, Nariman House and Trident Oberoi. The remaining four headed for the Taj.

The jehadis were well versed in commando operations, as was evident in the sustained fight they put up against security forces. Their brief from their handlers in Pakistan was simple: target the Whites. The commandos were aware of the layout of each of the attack sites and used it to their advantage in the war that followed at the Taj, Nariman House and Oberoi.

Narendra Kaushik

The busting of a Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) cell in Jammu and Kashmir with arrest of three terrorists on Saturday has given a jolt to security establishment as three of the terrorists have claimed that they sneaked into India via Mumbai sea route after paying bribes to Coast Guard.

This is the first time that security agencies in the valley have arrested terrorists who claimed to have taken the sea route to enter India, confirming fears of intelligence that terror groups might exploit the sea route to infiltrate the country.

The three terrorists - Mohammad Jamil, Abdul Majeed, residents of Naushera in Pakistan and Mohammd Zuber - were picked up from Rajouri and Jammu along with their three local contacts. While Jamil and Majid were traveling in a bus to Mendhar, Zuber was arrested from Jammu in simultaneous raids.

“They came from Karachi to Mumbai in a boat and claim to have bribed Coast Guard. The claim needs to be corroborated,” said Inspector General (IG) Jammu range S P Vaid. Talking to Mumbai Mirror, Vaid said that the details would be communicated to Indian Coast Guard and Mumbai Police.

Indian Coast Guard PRO Commandant V K Pal rubbished the claim saying that the story had too many loose ends. “Why were they not intercepted by Marine police? Pal wanted to know.

According to information gathered by Mumbai Mirror, the three terrorists were part of a eight member LeT cell which entered India via Mumbai about twenty days back and remaining five are yet to apprehended. The group set off from Karachi in a boat and were intercepted by a Coast Guard vessel. According to Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rajouri, Farooq Khan, the coast guard held them on the vessel for about 36 hours.

After this terrorists group leader, who later vanished in Mumbai, allegedly paid bribes to the guards on the vessel. He also arranged another boat for them as the earlier boat had developed defects. The terrorists were holed in a room in Mumbai for three days, arranged for them by their local contacts. Consequently the same contacts helped them in boarding a train to Delhi.

The terrorists travelled in three-four separate groups in the train. Jamil and Majid reached Jammu in a bus from Chandigarh and were traveling to Mendhar with their local contacts Mohd Taj and Feroz Mohd when the police caught them. Juber was arrested in Jammu separately with another contact.

The security agencies have launched a hunt for the remaining five terrorists and their Mumbai contacts.

The terrorists were supposed to report to a top commander of LeT in the state and he in turn would have fixed their assignment. This is probably the reason why they were not carrying any arms when they were arrested.

SSP Farooq Khan said that the terrorists chose the sea route because almost entire Indo-Pak border in J&K had been fenced and security forces had squeezed the Line of Control (LoC) with heavy deployment.

To counter infiltration and smuggling via coast route, Union Home Ministry recently mooted joint patrolling of the sea by Navy, state police and Customs by deploying trawlers hired by the State Governments. Number of Coast Guard stations and Marine police station has been set up in Gujarat, Maharashtra and other coastal states to thwart the terrorists designs.

The Spy Who Quit
A Conversation with Amrullah Saleh

Must watch Video! As always Saleh at his very best, direct and to the point!

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline ... -quit.html

Transcript available on the same page for those living in the past...

Published: Saturday, Mar 3, 2012, 20:36 IST
A Pakistani court conducting the trial of seven suspects charged with involvement in the Mumbai attacks on Saturday adjourned the case till March 6 after defence lawyers asked the judge to appoint a "coordinator" for a judicial commission's visit to India to interview key officials.

Defence lawyers filed an application asking anti-terrorism court Judge Shahid Rafique to appoint a coordinator who could facilitate the working of the commission in India.

The panel is scheduled to visit Mumbai between March 12 and 22.

The defence lawyers informed the court that the members of the commission were yet to be provided the itinerary of the visit and other details, such as where they would stay in Mumbai and whom they would meet.

They further said the report of the chief investigation officer who probed the 2008 Mumbai incident had not been provided to them despite a direction from the court to prosecution lawyers.

Chief prosecutor Chaudhry Zulifqar Ali informed the judge that the itinerary for the commission's visit would be finalised once the Indian government finalises arrangements and informs Pakistani authorities, sources told PTI.

Ali said the Indian investigator's report had been sought from Indian authorities but was yet to be received.

The judge directed prosecutors to submit a reply to the application from the defence lawyers by March 6.

Khwaja Haris Ahmed, the counsel for Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, told PTI that a coordinator should be appointed for the commission's visit to India.

He said he had also written to the federal government on this issue.

Ahmed claimed the prosecution was resorting to "delaying tactics" and had not obtained the report of the chief investigation officer in Mumbai despite the court's observation.

The Indian government had earlier asked Pakistan to send the commission between February 1 and 10.

However, the panel could not go ahead with the visit due to various reasons, including questions that were raised about its constitution.

The Pakistani commission is scheduled to interview the magistrate who recorded the confession of Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving attacker, the police officer who led the investigation in Mumbai and two doctors who conducted the autopsies of the terrorists and victims.

Lakhvi and six other suspects have been charged with planning, financing and executing the attacks that killed 166 people in November 2008.

However, their trial has stalled over various technical issues for the past year.

Pakistani prosecutors have said the commission's visit to India is necessary to take forward the trial.

The commission will record the statements of four witnesses, including Mr. Waghule, who recorded the statement of the lone surviving terrorist, Ajmal Amir Kasab; chief investigating officer of the case Ramesh Mahale and two doctors from the state-run Nair Hospital and J.J. Hospital who had conducted the autopsies of nine terrorists and had examined the wounds of Kasab.

The commission members will not be allowed to cross-examine the witnesses.

Z+ security cover

Soon after the team — 8 judicial commission members and 3 Pakistan Embassy officials — arrived, it was immediately taken to a five-star hotel in a heavily guarded motorcade. Police officials said the delegation was provided with Z+ security cover.

The commission comprises four defense lawyers: Khwaja Haris, Riyaz Akram Choudhary, Fakhar Haayat and Raja Ehassan Ulhakhan; two public prosecutors: Choudhary Mohammed Azhar and Choudhary Ali; one member from the joint investigation team Azad Khan and one court official named Hameed.

Legal requirements

“We are here to fulfil the legal requirements of the trial of the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks,” Mr. Ahmed said.

The Pakistan Judicial Commission, which is in India to record the statements of four witnesses in the November 26, 2008 terror attack here, was on Friday denied permission by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's court to cross-examine the witnesses. Sources told The Hindu that such heated arguments ensued during the proceedings that India's Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam was questioned about his locus standi by the Pakistani commission in opposing the request for cross-examination.

“We told the court that according to what was agreed, the Pakistan government was told in 2010 that the panel would only be allowed to record statements, and not cross-examine the witnesses. The court upheld our contention and refused the prayer of defence counsel,” Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, who represented the government of India and the government of Maharashtra, said.

The statement of the first witness, Rama Vijay Sawant Waghule — who had recorded the confessional statement of Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist — was recorded for more than an hour-and-a-half on Friday.

Earlier in the day, the proceedings started at 12.30 pm. Special Public Prosecutor from Pakistan Azhar Choudhary and his junior prosecutor arrived at 12 noon while Mr. Nikam and senior police officials arrived at 12.15 p.m.

Four defence lawyers of the alleged conspirator of the 26/11 attack Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and other accused arrived at 12.45 p.m.

“Mr. Nikam introduced the Pakistan Judicial Commission members to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate and informed the court that two witnesses were present and their evidence was to be recorded,” a source privy to the court proceedings told The Hindu.

“Thereafter, advocate Khwaja Haris [defence counsel of Lakhvi] who was formerly the advocate general of Punjab province, told the judge that the defence lawyers would like to cross-examine all the witnesses in view of the Rawalpindi court order. He sought permission for the same and told the court about the news items which said that they would not be allowed to cross-examine,” the official said.

“Public Prosecutor of Pakistan informed the judge that the defence had the right to cross-examine the witnesses,” he added.

When the court asked Mr. Nikam about this, he mentioned the agreement between India and Pakistan and produced a letter dated October 5, 2010 written by the Pakistan Foreign Ministry. “The government of Pakistan has clearly informed the government of India that the commission will not cross-examine the witnesses,” Mr. Nikam is reported to have told the court.

Mr. Nikam also drew the court's attention to Section 285(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code, which states that if there is any arrangement between two governments regarding taking evidence of a witness, then it shall prevail.

When the Public Prosecutor of Pakistan was called to clarify the position on the 2010 letter, he toed the line of defence counsel of Lakhvi and six others instead of making his stand clear, the sources said. It was after this that the heated arguments took place, the sources said.


“Mr. Nikam got upset by that and he asked the court how the prosecutor could suppress the fact from the commission when they were informed about it by the government of Pakistan in 2010. He pointed out that the prosecution had remained mum on a vital issue and that the defence counsel should have insisted on cross-examination in the Rawalpindi court itself,” the official said.

Mr. Nikam told reporters that he told the court that the cross-examination of witnesses was unwarranted at this stage as Kasab's appeal was pending before the Supreme Court. The arguments over permission for cross-examination went on for nearly two hours, the sources said. After lunch, the commission recorded the statement of Ms. Sawant-Waghule.

“She deposed before the commission and said Kasab had given voluntary confession of the attack. When she had asked him, why he willingly confessed, he had said his confession should inspire others, she told the court,” an official said.Ms. Sawant-Waghule's statement was recorded under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code. The sources said that as per the regulations, only the public prosecutors were allowed to examine the witnesses. On Saturday, the two prosecutors are set to examine Chief Investigating Officer Ramesh Mahale and two doctors from the state-run Nair and JJ Hospitals who had conducted autopsies of nine terrorists.

The recording of statements of all the three remaining witnesses is expected to get over on Saturday.

...

But these threats are not new. In November 2006, the then Union Minister of Home Affairs, Shivraj Patil, had alerted security agencies that Indian nuclear power plants were highly vulnerable to attempts by terrorists to occupy some uninhabited islands and use them as bases for attacks along the coasts. Patil also said that some LeT operatives were being specifically trained for sabotage of oil installations and these militants had decided to use sea routes to infiltrate into India. Saying that his assessment was based on intelligence outputs, Patil added that the terrorists "planned to induct arms and ammunition through the sea route and installations of oil and natural gas sector, defence, communications and IT sector are equally vulnerable." He disclosed that terrorists were reportedly collecting information about the location of various refineries on or near the Indian coastline in a new strategy of widening their spheres of influence. He confirmed that the targets also included the Nagarjuna Sagar Dam and Goa Shipyard.


Addressing the issue in the Parliament, Defence Minister A.K. Antony said in March 2007 that there were "reports about terrorists of various tanzeems (groups) being trained and (the) likelihood of their infiltration through sea routes". Again, addressing the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Parliament) in May 2007, the then Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Sriprakash Jaiswal stated that Pakistan-based terrorist groups, particularly the LeT, were exploring possibilities of infiltrating their agents, arms and ammunition into India through the sea route.


A number of arrested LeT terrorists have also revealed the infiltration of militants using the sea route to target vital economic and strategic installations. On July 13, 2006, Police at Kutch in Gujarat arrested two LeT cadres, identified as Abdul Khaliq Tayyab and Abdul Gafoor Qasim Chaba, both Pakistani nationals, with INR 2.4 millions in fake Indian currency and a Global Positioning System device. The duo confessed during interrogation that their trip was part of a series of dry runs on the Karachi-Mandvi and Karachi-Jhakhau sea routes being conducted by their handlers. They also disclosed that their handlers had established a network of local fishermen who were paid INR 500,000 each time they landed a consignment on Indian shores.

...

A Pakistani judicial panel's recent visit to India as part of the probe into the Mumbai attacks will have "zero impact" on the case of seven suspects charged with involvement in the incident, according to the lawyer of an LeT commander accused of masterminding the 2008 strikes.

"We have come back with disappointment. Had we known that the commission's members would not be allowed to cross-examine the four witnesses, we would have refused to go to India," Khwaja Haris Ahmed, the lawyer for Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, told PTI.

"There was no point in carrying out this exercise as it will have zero impact on the case of the seven accused here. Even Pakistani prosecutors were not satisfied with the outcome of the visit. None of us was expecting that it would be a futile exercise," he claimed.

The eight-member commission, which travelled to Mumbai last week, recorded the statements of the police officer who led the investigation into the attacks, the magistrate who recorded the confession of Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving attacker, and two doctors who conducted the autopsies of the dead terrorists and victims.

The Pakistani commission returned from India last evening.
Indian officials, who did not want to be named, expressed surprise at the remarks made by members of the commission about being barred from cross-examining the Indian officials in Mumbai.

"Under the agreement for the commission's visit, it was made very clear beforehand that the panel would not be allowed to do any cross-examination," one official told PTI.
Similarly, the Indian officials said that the Pakistani side had been told well in advance that no access would be granted to Kasab.

Ahmed said when members of the Pakistani commission raised the issue of cross-examination, Indian prosecutors said an agreement signed by the governments of both countries in 2010 stated that there would be no cross-examination of each other's witnesses.

"We demanded the copy of the agreement but they could not produce it on three separate occasions in the court of chief metropolitan magistrate (in Mumbai)," he claimed.
"Even if both governments had signed such an agreement, under the law it has no value. Without cross-examination how can the witnesses' statements be useful in the case?" he asked.

Ahmed said the four Indian witnesses appeared in the Mumbai court and recorded their statements.

"Our presence there was immaterial as we were denied cross-examination," he said.
Asked about the commission not being allowed to meet Kasab, Ahmed said: "That was not an issue. The issue was that of cross examination, which might have had an impact on the case in Pakistan and for which we had gone to India," he said.

Ahmed dismissed as baseless some media reports that said the Pakistani commission had not been treated well by its hosts.

"It was not the case. Rather we were given good security and accommodation. Our Indian hosts extended full cooperation during our stay," he said.

The commission's members will inform the Pakistani anti-terrorism court conducting the trial of Lakhvi and six other suspects about their visit on Saturday.

The seven suspects have been charged with planning, financing and executing the terror attacks that killed 166 people in the Indian financial hub in November 2008.
Their trial has virtually stalled for over a year due to various technical reasons.

The 26/11 Mumbai attack was carried out by highly trained terrorists who were given training into paramilitary courses by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a US attorney has said.

...this (Mumbai attack) was, in fact, the handiwork of highly trained terrorists who had gone through the LeT paramilitary courses," US Attorney Neil H MacBride said in a submission to a US District court in Virginia, which sentenced 24-year-old Pakistani national Jubair Ahmad for aiding LeT.
Ahmad was sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment yesterday for providing material support to LeT by making a propaganda video for the terror group, helping it with recruitment and fundraising.
Based in US for the past few years, Ahmad had himself received two levels of LeT training and was in regular communication with Talha Saeed, the son of the LeT founder Hafiz Saeed.

Though based in US, the purpose of Ahmad was to incite violence against India in particular Kashmir.

Ahmad "advocated violence, almost exclusively against the Indian army in Kashmir."
According to US attorney, Ahmad received first two levels of paramilitary training from the LeT - Dora Suffa and Dora A'ama.

India [ Images ] has sent a formal request to Morocco for examination and recording of statement of Faiza Outalha, Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley's [ Images ] estranged wife, to get more evidence against him as well as Lashkar-e-Tayiba [ Images ] founder Hafiz Saeed [ Images ].The Letters Rogatory was sent recently to the Indian Mission in Rabat, the Moroccan capital city, which was passed on to the Moroccan Foreign and Cooperation Ministry requesting access to Outalha to record her statement, official sources said.
The sources said Outalha, the estranged wife of Headley, could give crucial evidence in nailing the lies of Saeed.The request was passed following approval of a plea of the National Investigation Agency for seeking cooperation of Moroccan authorities in recording her statement, which was also likely to be annexed with the production warrant for Headley, to be sent soon as a special court has sought his appearance on May 31.The sources said while it was unlikely that Headley would be brought to India, the statement of Outulha would bring out the role played by Saeed in the 26/11 attack in Mumbai [ Images ] that left over 160 people including foreigners dead.Outalha, during her stay in Pakistan, had met Saeed and complained about Headley to him. She had also gone to the US embassy in Islamabad [ Images ] to complain about the American-born terrorist and his role in terror groups like LeT and Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami, the sources said, adding that her statement would be recorded.Outalha, who married 50-year-old Headley in February 2007 and divorced him a year later, had been able to give security agencies an insight into the personal life of Headley which included connections he had in Mumbai.She had flown to Mumbai from Karachi and the second time, crossed over through Wagah border into India. She had come for the first time in 2007 and stayed with the terror suspect in Taj Mahal Hotel [ Images ] and later in Oberoi-Trident [ Images ].Both the luxury hotels were targeted by the terrorists during the Mumbai terror attack in November 2008. She had again come in May 2008 via Wagah and went straight to Manali, where she was on a holiday. She later toured some areas of Shimla including nearby Kufri, a popular tourist destination.