India presses for speedy trial of Mumbai attacks accused

Ahead of the fifth anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks carried out by LeT, India today expressed concern at the "lack of any progress" in the trial of Pakistani suspects charged with involvement in the brazen assault.
Without naming Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed, High Commissioner T C A Raghavan said India was "deeply concerned that people we believe are in some ways responsible (for the Mumbai attacks) had a very wide altitude of activity in Pakistan".
"We are deeply concerned about the lack of any progress in the Mumbai case. The Mumbai case must be recognised as very important in terms of Indian public sentiment," he said.

This was the only terror attack in South Asia where evidence was clearly established, he said. The envoy said it needs to be recognised the attacks, carried out during November 26-29, 2008, have a "special significance".
"The difference is that the links between the information, intelligence and evidence are much more clearly established than has ever been the case in South Asia, in at least as regards to a terrorist attack," Raghavan said while speaking at a function in a think tank here.
India recorded conversations between the terrorists and their handlers in Pakistan even as the attacks were taking place, he said.

"Soon after the attacks came to an end, people were arrested over here. The entire conspiracy was hatched in Pakistan. People have identified where the training camps were, where the boat was hired from," he

Raghavan's remarks came on a day when a Karachi-based port worker, who had seen 10 LeT terrorists leave in a boat hours before the attacks, was cross-examined for the second day in an anti-terrorism court conducting the trial of seven suspects, including LeT commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
"The witness was cross-examined and we are not happy with his answers. He could not reply to our questions about Amjad Khan," defence lawyer Riaz Akram Cheema told PTI after the hearing held at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi for security reasons.

Amjad Khan was a boat-owner who obtained a "port clearance certificate" for Al-Hussaini, the fishing boat used by the terrorists. The next hearing in the Mumbai attacks trial will be held on November 27.