26/11 trial: India suggests ways to expedite trial

New Delhi, Sep 15: With the 26/11 trial continuing to drag, India has suggested ways to Pakistan to expedite the trial of perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, a senior official said on Thursday.

Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar has written to his Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Chaudhry to expedite the trial, said External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup at a media briefing here.

"As you know, the Mumbai terror attack trial in Pakistan has not progressed expeditiously although it will soon be eight years since the dastardly attack," Swarup said.

"In order to bring the guilty to book, our Foreign Secretary has recently written to his counterpart in Pakistan suggesting ways in which the trial could be expedited by cooperation through the legal channel," he said.

He was responding to reports of the acquittal in a Pakistani court of a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist involved in the horrific attacks.

At least 166 people were killed when 10 members of the LeT carried out a series of shootings and bombings in Mumbai across four days starting from November 26, 2008.

While nine of the terrorists were killed during the attacks itself, the 10th, Ajmal Kasab, was captured alive, prosecuted and subsequently executed in November 2012.

In April last year, a Pakistani court granted bail to the attacks' foremost leader, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.

Jaishankar's letter, dated September 6, was handed over to Chaudhry on September 9, according to Swarup.

IANS