India has proposed to host a Pakistani judicial commission, which will cross-examine key witnesses in the Mumbai terror attacks case, after September 19, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said today.
Shinde said due to the ongoing 'Ganesh Chaturthi', which is the biggest festival in Maharashtra, India has requested Pakistan to postpone the visit of the panel till September 19.
Initially, India and Pakistan had agreed for the second visit of the Pakistani judicial commission on September 7. But later Pakistan had put off the visit at the eleventh hour and proposed September 11 (today) as the fresh date for its trip.
However, New Delhi has declined to entertain the request citing the 'Ganesh Chaturthi' festival in Maharashtra as the panel would visit Mumbai to cross examine the 26/11 case witnesses.
The witnesses are metropolitan magistrate Rama Vijay Sawant-Waghule, who recorded the confessional statement of Ajmal Kasab, chief investigating officer Ramesh Mahale and two doctors from the state-run Nair and J J Hospitals who had conducted autopsies of nine terrorists.
Seven terrorists, including Lashkar-e-Taiba operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, were charged with planning, financing and executing the attacks in Mumbai in November 2008 that killed 166 people and their trial was going on in a Rawalpindi court.
India has sought an early conclusion of the trial, which, it feels, is going at a very slow pace in Pakistan.
