26/11 trial: Pak judicial commission cancels India visit

, Sept 4:

on Tuesday said that its judicial commission for the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks will not visit India. The commission was due to arrive on September 7 for the second time to speak to witnesses in the case that saw death of over 160 people, including foreigners.

Islamabad had lodged a protest earlier saying that its commission was not allowed to cross-examine the witnesses and alleged that the hindrance was affecting the ongoing trial against the seven accused in the attacks. Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi is also among the accused.

The Pakistani announcement came hours after Sartaz Aziz, advisor to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on foreign affairs, told Indian high commissioner TCA Raghavan on Tuesday that Islamabad was looking forward to the commission's visit and the subsequent progress made in the case.

It is learnt that Pakistan cited technical and procedural reasons for the cancellation of the commission's visit. Fresh dates will be considered for the visit, sources put.

The development comes as a shock to New Delhi for the latter was hoping that the commission's visit would quicken the Mumbai trial and also bolster the chances of the prime ministers of India and Pakistan meeting in New York later this month.

There is a lot of noise from the opposition and media ranks in India demanding cancellation of talks with Pakistan in the wake of the continued violations of the Line of Control by the Pakistani forces.

OneIndia News