The trial of seven Pakistanis including Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) Commander Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi, charged with involvement in the Mumbai attacks was on Saturday shifted from a Rawalpindi court to a new Anti Terrorism Court in Islamabad.
Rawalpindi’s Anti Terrorism Court Judge Chaudhry Habib-ur-Rehman accepted the prosecution’s application to move the case to the Anti Terrorism Court of Judge Kausar Abbas Zaidi.
Judge Zaidi’s court, the first of its kind in Islamabad, was established recently to hear a case filed against former President Pervez Musharraf under the Anti Terrorism Act.
Legal experts said that fresh proceedings would have to be initiated as the judge would take some time to acquaint himself with the case’s details.
The government has yet to appoint a new chief prosecutor to replace the federal Investigation Agency (FIA)’s Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali who was assassinated by militants on May 3 in Islamabad.
The seven suspects are charged with planning, financing and executing the attacks that killed 166 people in Mumbai in November 2008.
