Interior Minister Rehman Malik has called on India to provide more details about the 26/11 key handler Abu Jundal, saying criminals using “fake” passports could not be Pakistanis.
“Pakistan expects to receive a copy of the statement of (Jundal). I expect to have original passport claimed to have been allegedly given by (Pakistan),” Malik wrote in a message posted on Twitter late on Friday night. Indian authorities have said Ansari alias Abu Jundal – who is an Indian citizen – had travelled to Saudi Arabia on a Pakistani passport.
In recent interactions with the media, Malik has questioned whether the passport used by Ansari was genuine. In another message posted on Twitter, Malik noted that “India had claimed earlier that (Jundal) had a Pakistani passport”, adding criminals using “fake” passports “cannot be Pakistani”. In yet another message, Malik said Pakistan “will continue to fully cooperate with India in the investigation of Mumbai terrorist attacks. Pak and India need to identify their real enemy.”
He said the two countries “need to know their real common enemy”. He also raised questions about Pakistan-American terror suspect David Headley, asking “who funded him to produce movies of locations” in Mumbai. Meanwhile, in yet another delay in the trial of seven Pakistani suspects charged with involvement in the Mumbai attacks, the matter has been adjourned until July 14 when the court will take up an application filed by Lashkar-e-Tayyaba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
Chaudhry Habibur Rehman, who was recently appointed judge of the Rawalpindi-based anti-terrorism court no 1, began hearing the case on Saturday. He said arguments by Lakhvi’s lawyer on the application will be heard at the next hearing. The Lashkar-e-Tayyaba operations commander has filed an application asking the court not to make the report of the Judicial Commission part of the proceedings as it has “no legal value”. The eight-member commission, which included prosecutors and defence lawyers, visited Mumbai earlier this year and interviewed a judge, a senior police officer and two doctors who conducted the autopsies of the terrorists involved in the attacks and their victims.
Defence lawyers have contended that the commission’s report has no legal value as the panel did not have the right to cross-examine witnesses in India. Lakhvi’s lawyer Khwaja Haris Ahmed has said the commission’s visit to India was an exercise in futility. The anti-terrorism court no 1 is conducting the trial of those charged with involvement in the Mumbai attacks and hearings are held behind closed doors at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi due to security reasons.