India on Thursday made it clear that the trial of the 26/11 accused in Pakistan would continue to be seen as “a test” of the sincerity of the government of the neighbouring country in combating terrorism.
Even as it waits for Islamabad to send a “firm proposal” about the visit of its investigators to probe the recent terror attack on the Indian Air Force base at Pathankot in Punjab, New Delhi sought to drive home the point that it was also equally important for Pakistan to speed up the trial of the seven Lashkar-e-Toiba operatives accused of planning and coordinating the November 26-28, 2008 terror attack in Mumbai from the neighbouring country.
“We have said before that we see the Mumbai terror attack trial as a test of Pakistan’s sincerity in combating terrorism directed against India,” Vikas Swarup, official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, told journalists on Thursday in New Delhi.
He was responding to a question on New Delhi’s view on Islamabad High Court’s recent order dismissing a petition by prosecutors seeking permission to obtain voice samples of LeT ‘commander’ Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi and his six accomplices accused of coordinating the 26/11 carnage in Mumbai.
He noted that the “planning, training and financing” for the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai were done in and from Pakistan, where 99 per cent of the evidence required for convicting the accused should be found. “It is Pakistan’s responsibility to unearth and present the requisite evidence in the ongoing trial so that the perpetrators are brought to justice.”
The voice samples could have been used to match with the recordings of phone conversations among the 10 terrorists, who had carried out the November 26-28, 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, and the LeT operatives, who coordinated the strikes from Pakistan.
India’s intelligence agencies had intercepted the conversations over phone and New Delhi had sent the recordings to Islamabad, asking the latter to use those to nail the LeT operatives who had plotted and coordinated the carnage in Mumbai.
