New Delhi/Islamabad: India on Tuesday handed over to Pakistan a fresh dossier of evidence on last year's Mumbai terror attacks containing statements of key witnesses, including a magistrate and FBI officials, with the hope that the prosecution in Pakistan would be expedited.
The seventh dossier was handed over by Y K Sinha, Joint Secretary (Pakistan Division) in the Ministry of External Affairs, to Pakistan's Deputy High Commissioner Rifat Masood who was called to the South Block for the same.
The new dossier is believed to consist of statements of witnesses, including the deposition of a Mumbai magistrate before whom the lone captured Pakistani gunman Mohammad Ajmal Kasab had given a voluntary confession of his alleged involvement in the attacks.
In his statement to the magistrate, Kasab had confessed that the conspiracy for the 26/11 attacks was hatched in Pakistan by terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives including alleged mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.
Lakhvi has been arrested by Pakistan and is facing prosecution along with six others.
The dossier is also believed to include deposition of FBI officers who told the trial court in Mumbai that mobile phones recovered from terror sites were used by terrorists to communicate with their handlers in Pakistan during the terror siege.
Deposition of foreign nationals and seizures of some articles recovered from terror sites such as Hotels Taj and Oberoi and Nariman House are also believed to be part of the dossier.
Interior Ministry to examine dossier
Pakistan on Tuesday said the Interior Ministry will examine a new dossier of information on the Mumbai attacks that was handed over by India.
"On Tuesday evening, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs handed over another dossier on the Mumbai incident to our High Commission in New Delhi," Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said in a statement.
"Arrangements have been made for the receipt of the dossier in Islamabad. Once received, the dossier will be forwarded to the Ministry of Interior for examination," he said.
India's last dossier, handed over to Pakistan on August 1, had called on Islamabad to take action against Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, described by New Delhi as the mastermind of the Mumbai attacks that killed 183 people last year.
Pakistan had handed over a dossier on the status of its probe into the Mumbai incident to India in September.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik had said that authorities are probing Saeed's alleged role in the attacks but ruled out the possibility of his extradition to India if any of the charges against him are proved.
A Pakistani anti-terrorism court is conducting the trial of seven suspects, including Lashker-e-Toiba operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, arrested for alleged involvement in the attacks. However, the trial has run into several delays and been mired in confusion and controversy.
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