The Pakistan Judicial Commission enquiring into the terror strike of November 26, 2008 is likely to visit Mumbai on September 7 and 8 and this time it will be permitted to cross examine four witnesses, including the investigating officer in the case and the magistrate who recorded Ajmal Kasab’s confession in Mumbai.
At the hearing of the case in the Anti Terrorism Court (ATC) here on Saturday, special public prosecutor Chaudhury Mohammed Azhar submitted the confirmation of the visit from India and the offer of dates on which the Commission could visit. Special judge Atiqur Rehman has asked the Commission to confirm the dates of travel to Mumbai by September 3.
Mr. Azhar told
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The case is being heard in-camera, Mr. Azhar said and the media was not allowed in court. In March 2012, members of the Commission did visit Mumbai and recorded some statements of witnesses but they were not allowed to be cross examined, by a magistrate’s court order. Ujjwal Nikam, who was special public prosecutor in Mumbai for the November 26 terror attack case opposed the cross examination and contended that the Commission could only record statements. Later, the ATC judge rejected the report of the Pakistan Judicial Commission as a result.
However, this time the Indian government granted permission for the cross examination of the witnesses. Mr. Azhar said the last time they did meet some doctors but they were not the ones who had conducted the post-mortems of the nine slain men.
Mr. Nikam told
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The case has been dragging on for a while now and the former prosecutor, Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali, was shot dead on his way to the Rawalpindi court in May this year.
Heavy security has now been provided to Mr. Azhar.
Mr. Ali was handling the Benazir Bhutto case apart from the November 26 terror strike and other high profile matters.