Pakistani authorities asked india to allow cross examine to 26/11 witnesses

Islamabad: Pakistani authorities have asked india to allow its defence lawyers to cross examination key witnesses in the 2008 Mumbai attack.
In a message sent to Indian authorities on July 20, the Federal Investigation Agency asked that the defence counsel should be allowed to cross-examine surviving attacker Ajmal Kasab, chief investigation officer Ramesh Mahale, and Ganesh Dhunraj and Chintaman Mohite, the two doctors who performed the autopsies of slain attackers.

The FIA also sent the July 17 order of a Pakistani anti-terrorism court that declared illegal the findings of a Pakistani commission which had recorded the statements of these four witnesses during a visit to India.

If the Indian government does not allow cross-examination by the defence lawyers, the statements of key witnesses recorded earlier would be declared inadmissible in the case, the the Dawn newspaper quoted its sources as saying.

In such a situation, even the confessional statement of Kasab, CCTV footage of the attackers and 780 documents that the Indian government handed over to Pakistan through diplomatic channels will all go to waste, the sources were quoted as saying.

FIA Special Prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali said the anti-terrorism court had already declared that findings of the Pakistani commission would be inadmissible unless the defence counsel can cross-examine the Indian witnesses.

He said the evidence could lead to the conviction of the seven accused – Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hammad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younas Anjum.