Pak wants to give clean chit to Saeed, Lakhvi : Nikam

Noted public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam on Friday said that Pakistan wants to give a clean chit to Lashkar-e-Taiba (leT) founder Hafiz Saeed and its commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi in 26/11 terror attack case by rejecting India's demand for reinvestigation.

Pakistan on Thursday rejected New Delhi's demand of reinvestigation in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack case and sought 'concrete' evidence against Saeed, the mastermind of the attack. Pakistan said it can't do a reinvestigation as "the case is in an advanced stage".

Questioning Pakistan's alibi of 'advanced stage' in denying the reinvestigation, Nikam said, "I fail to understand what advanced stage is when nothing is done in the case"

Talking to ANI, the special public prosecutor in 26/11 case said Pakistan's denial was not a new thing and it was adamant on not acceding to India's demand to take note of David Headley's most crucial evidence against Saeed and Lakhvi.

"When we (India) have told you (Pakistan) categorically that take the evidence of David Headley but Islamabad has refused it. It means Pakistan wants to give a clean chit to Zaki-ur-rehman Lakhvi and Hafiz Saeed in 26/11 case," said Nikam.

He said that as per a strategy, Islamabad didn't want to investigate, didn't want to peruse the new evidence which had been marshalled and tendered by David Headley in court.

Headley is currently serving a 35-year prison sentence in the US for his role in the Mumbai terror attacks in which four American nationals were also killed.

Headley appeared before a Mumbai Special Court via video conferencing in February 2016 and told that he was trained in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) by LeT founder Hafiz Saeed and also its commander Lakhvi.

He had also testified before the court that he was in touch with three officers of Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI - Major Ali, Major Iqbal and Major Abdul Rehman Pasha- during his training.

On the instructions of the LeT and the ISI, Headley in 2006 and 2008 did recce in Mumbai for an attack, which helped LeT gunmen to unleash terror in India's commercial capital.

The 26/11 terror attack case is being heard in a Pakistani anti-terror court in which 166 people were killed when ten LeT terrorist had attacked various places in Mumbai.