Pak court extends police remand of 26/11 suspects

A Pakistani anti-terrorism court has extended the police remand of three accused -- in a case related to the terror attack on Mumbai -- by two days and remanded another suspect to judicial custody for a fortnight.

Anti-terror court judge Sakhi Mohammad Kahut remanded Lashker-e-Tayiba operatives Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Zarar Shah and Abu al-Qama to the custody of the Federal Investigation Agency for two more days during a hearing held in the high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi on Tuesday.

The judge remanded LeT activist Hamad Amin Sadiq, described by Pakistani officials as the 'main operator' behind the 26/11 attacks, to judicial custody for 14 days. He will be held at Adiala Jail. The court directed the FIA's Special Investigation Cell to produce Lakhvi, Shah and al-Qama again on March 19.

It also directed that Sadiq should be produced again on March 30. The SIC requested an extension of the police remand for Lakhvi, Shah and al-Qama because it wanted to question them further, following the receipt of India's response to Pakistan's 30 questions, seeking further information on the Mumbai attacks.

In light of this information, the SIC will arrange for the accused to watch some CDs provided by India and then interrogate them. Lakhvi, Shah and al-Qama are the main suspects in the case, SIC officials told the judge. The court accepted the SIC's request and extended the police remand of the three suspects.

The FIA registered a case on February 12 against nine suspects, including Lakhvi, Shah, al-Qama, Sadiq, a suspect identified only as Khan, Javed Iqbal, Muhammad Ashfaq, Muhammad Riaz and Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist captured by Indian authorities, for their involvement in the attacks that sent shockwaves across India last November.