Indian team visits Pak to discuss 26/11 carnage

A three-member team left for Islamabad on Wednesday to finalise the modalities of second Pakistan judicial commission which is supposed to visit India to cross examine witnesses to the 26/11 terror strike in Mumbai.

During the just concluded three-day visit of Pakistan interior minister Rehaman Malik, the UPA government had given in principle approval for the judicial commission to fly here but only after going through the neighbouring country’s records and a court judgment. 

A trial court in Pakistan had refused to accept the findings of the first commission Pakistan had sent in March on the grounds that it did not cross examine witnesses and returned merely with evidences handed over by the Indian authorities, including a statement of lone Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist Azmal Kasab who was recently hanged to death. 

The team headed by Dharmendra Sharma will have interactions with counterparts in Islamabad interior ministry to fix the terms and reference in a manner that it is not declared ultra vires by their courts again. The 26/11 public prosecutor Ujwal Nigam has also accompanied the team which will hold deliberations till December 22.