India summons Pak dy envoy for tardy progress of 26/11 trial

India on Friday lodged a strong protest with Pakistan over the tardy progress of the trial of the seven 26/11 terror plotters currently before an anti-terrorism court in the neighbouring country.

Pakistan too retaliated by raking up the issue of the Samjhauta Express blast case and asked India to keep it posted about progress of the trial of the seven plotters and perpetrators of the 2007 explosion on the train that runs between Delhi and Lahore.

The two countries talked tough with each other just a couple of days after Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh and her Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Ahmed Choudhury spoke over phone and agreed to meet in Islamabad on August 25 to explore possibilities of restarting the stalled dialogue.

Mansoor Ahmed Khan, Pakistan’s deputy high commissioner to India, was summoned to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in New Delhi early on Friday. The top officials of the Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran division conveyed to Khan New Delhi’ strong disappointment over repeated adjournments of the trial of the seven Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operatives in an anti-terrorism court at Rawalpindi in Pakistan.

The seven are accused of planning and coordinating the November 26-28, 2008 carnage, which left over 150 killed and many others injured in Mumbai.

India’s Deputy High Commissioner to Pakistan, Gopal Bagley, also called on Riffat Masood, Director General (South Asia and Saarc) in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the neighbouring country’s government, to enquire about the 26/11 trial.

According to a press release circulated by the High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi, Masood told Bagley that the trial was taking its legal course and efforts were being made for its early conclusion.

She also “took the opportunity to enquire about the Samjhauta Express investigations” and told the Indian deputy high commissioner that it was necessary that the “outcome of the investigations” be shared with the Pakistan government at the earliest.

Altogether 68 people – mostly citizens of Pakistan – were killed in the explosion on Samjhauta Express on February 19, 2007. Four people linked to saffron organisations in India are facing charges for plotting the explosion and are undergoing trial, while another accused was murdered a few months after the incident and three others are absconding.