Allow NIA team to visit Pakistan; Shinde tells Malik

India also wants the NIA team to meet the witnesses of the 26/11 case in which LeT commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and six others are the prime accused.

The case is being heard by a special court in Rawalpindi's high-security Adila jail.

India's view was conveyed by Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde when he had met his Pakistani counterpart Rehman Malik on the sidelines of the SAARC ministerial meeting in the Maldives last week.

Shinde told Malik that the team of National Investigation Agency should be allowed to visit Pakistan before New Delhi allows the second visit of the that country's Judicial Commission for cross examination of a magistrate who recorded the statement of terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab, investigating officer of the case and two doctors who performed the postmortem of the nine LeT terrorists who were killed by security forces in Mumbai in November, 2008.

"India will soon send a formal request to Pakistan about the visit of NIA team. The team will look at the material evidence collected by NIA which is probing the case there," a Home Ministry official, who is privy to the development, told PTI.

New Delhi is also likely to request Islamabad to allow the NIA team to meet the witnesses of the 26/11 case.

"But we are not sure whether Pakistan will allow the NIA team to meet the witnesses," the official said. (More)