India will press Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik due to pay an official visit from December 14-16, for dates of the proposed ministry of home affairs team’s visit to Pakistan for finalizing terms of reference (ToR) of the second Pakistani judicial commission that seeks to cross-examine key 26/11 witnesses.
India had proposed the MHA team’s Pakistan visit over three weeks ago and sought an assurance from top law officers of the neighbouring country regarding admissibility of evidence to be gathered by the second judicial panel. The assurance, home ministry sources said, was felt necessary as the information collected by the first Pakistani judicial panel from the four key 26/11 witnesses, the magistrate who recorded executed 26/11 attacker Ajmal Kasab’s statement, the 26/11 investigating officer and two doctors who conducted post-mortem on the nine slain terrorists, was rejected by the Pakistani courts. The court said the information had little “evidential value” as the witnesses had not been cross-examined.
An Indian Home Ministry official confirmed that Malik’s will be a full-fledged official visit, with a delegation of senior officers traveling along with him to assist in bilateral engagement that will cover the entire gamut of issues relating to internal security, particularly terrorism, action against 26/11 perpetrators based in Pakistan and pending red-corner notices. The visit will see operationalization of the new Indo-Pak visa regime, under which multi-city visas can be issued for up to five cities.
Sources said the itinerary for Malik’s visit is likely to be finalized on Monday. It will be recalled that the Pakistani interior minister had expressed his desire to visit the Taj Mahal and the shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer.
