Pak panel inspects boat used by 26/11 terrorists

A judicial commission constituted by a Pakistani anti-terrorism court today examined a boat used by 10 LeT terrorists to reach India for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack and recorded the statement of an investigator.
"A Pakistani commission, comprising prosecution and defense lawyers, today inspected Al-Fauz boat (used by Mumbai attack terrorists) in port city of Karachi in the presence of a trial court judge," an official said.
He said the commission also recorded the statement of an official of the Federal Investigation Agency who had collected evidence about Al-Fauz.
"The commission recorded the FIA official statement and received evidence," the official said.

"There will be no further inspection of the boat as the commission will submit its report to the trial court on next hearing on October 19," he said.
The commission was constituted during a hearing into the Mumbai terror attack case by anti-terrorism court (ATC) Islamabad, which held the hearing at the Adiala Jail Rawalpindi last month, and heard that the boat was used by the terrorists in the attacks in which 166 people were killed.

The ATC judge accepted the request by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to send a judicial commission to examine the boat as it was difficult to produce the vessel before the court.

Earlier, the Islamabad High Court had set aside the verdict of a trial court of not allowing to send a commission to Karachi, terming it "flawed and not in accordance with law" and allowed examination of the boat in the port city.
In May, the prosecution had challenged the trial court's decision to reject its plea to form a commission to examine the boat so that the vessel could be made a "case property".
According to the FIA, the attackers used three boats - including Al Fauz - to reach Mumbai from Karachi.
Al-Fauz is in the custody of Pakistani authorities in Karachi, from where 10 militants, armed with AK-47 assault rifles and hand grenades, had left for India to carry out the Mumbai attack.

A Federal Investigation Agency's report says along with the engine and the boat, a bank and a money exchange company were also traced which were used for the transaction of money.
10 LeT militants had left Karachi on the boat on November 23, 2008. En route to their destination, they hijacked another boat, killing four of its crew.
They forced the vessel's captain to take them close to the Indian shores. The captain was killed when the vessel reached Mumbai's coast.
Mastermind and LeT operations commander Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younis Anjum are accused of abetment to murder, attempted murder, planning and executing the Mumbai attack.

Lakhvi is living at an undisclosed location after being released from jail on bail a year ago. The other six suspects are in Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi. The case has been going on in the country since the last six years.