26/11 trial in Pakistan drags on, lawyers skip hearing

An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan on Saturday adjourned the trial of seven Pakistani suspects charged with involvement in the Mumbai attacks for three weeks after defence lawyers and prosecutors did not attend proceedings, sources said.

Judge Chaudhry Habib-ur-Rehman, who is conducting the trial in Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, put off the case till January 12 after Special Prosecutor Chaudhry Zulifqar Ali and lawyers defending the suspects did not attend the proceedings due to various reasons, sources told PTI.

The Special Prosecutor had to attend a funeral while the reasons for the absence of the defence lawyers could not immediately be ascertained.

Officials of the Federal Investigation Agency and intelligence agencies had testified during recent hearings about the training of the 10 terrorists who attacked Mumbai in Lashkar-e-Tayiba camps in Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces.

The officials also provided to the court the evidence that had been gathered from these camps.

Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist involved in the attacks was hanged in a Pune jail last month.

A team of Indian legal experts is currently visiting Islamabad to finalise the terms of reference of a judicial commission that is expected to visit India next year to gather evidence on the Mumbai attacks.

Pakistani authorities decided to send the panel to Mumbai as the findings of another judicial commission were rejected by an anti-terrorism court as its members were not allowed to cross-examine four key Indian witnesses.