26/11: 2nd Pak judicial commission to visit India

Pakistan has sent the terms of reference for visit of the second Judicial Commission to India to cross-examine key witnesses in the Mumbai attack case to speed up the prosecution of seven Pakistani suspects in that country.

Without giving details of communication, official sources said the terms of reference were received recently and have been sent to legal experts for their opinion.

Pakistan had requested for a visit of the second commission as a trial court there had rejected the findings of the earlier judicial commission that visited Mumbai in March.

The Pakistani court had said that the report of the panel had no "evidential value" as it was not allowed to cross-examine the four witnesses and asked the panel to visit India again.

The four witnesses to be cross examined by the panel include the magistrate who recorded the confessional statement of Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist Ajmal Kasab, since hanged, the investigating officer of the 26/11 case and two doctors who conducted the post mortem of the nine terrorists killed during encounters with police and NSG in 2008.

Pakistan has been holding a trial against five accused including 26/11 master-mind Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, Abu Alqama alias Mazhar Iqbal, Hammad Amin, Abdul Wajid alias Zarar Shah and Shahid Jameel Riaz.

Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik, during his meeting with Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, had requested for allowing the second commission so that the legal formalities could be completed.

Shinde had conveyed to him that 26/11 was a test case and that Islamabad should ensure an early and a speedy trial for all the accused involved in the conspiracy.

A Pakistani commission had come in March this year during which they only recorded the statements of the witnesses and could not question them.