Pak adjourns 26/11 trial for seventh time in a row: India summons envoy

India on Friday summoned the deputy high commissioner of Pakistan and lodged a strong diplomatic protest against the reported adjournment of the ongoing trial of the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attack.

According to a report on CNN-IBN, the Indian Deputy High Commissioner went to the Pakistani Foreign office and lodged a similar protest. The channel quoted informed sources as saying that Indian officials in their meetings with Pakistan, both in New Delhi and Islamabad, have sought regular briefings on the progress of the trail and the investigation being conducted by Pakistani authorities.

It is understood that the Indian officials reiterated the high importance India attaches to bringing to justice all those responsible in Pakistan for the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

The Indian action came after a Pakistani anti-terrorism court trying the seven accused in the 2008 26/11 Mumbai attacks case adjourned the hearing on July 23 till September 3 because the judge had gone on a summer vacation. This is the seventh time in a row that the case has been adjourned.

The court office had apparently sent out a notification that ATC Rawalpindi Judge Attiquer Rehman has gone on a summer vacation.

The last hearing in the case and the one on June 25 could not be held because the judge was on leave. The case proceedings have not been held on a regular basis following the absence of the prosecution lawyers.

In the May 28, June 4, June 18 and July 2 hearings, the prosecution lawyers had not appeared in the ATC Rawalpindi primarily owing to security concerns. The prosecution lawyers had drawn the court’s attention to ensure their security in the face of threats they received allegedly from Jamaat-ud-Dawah activists.

Lashkar-e-Taiba operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Anjum have been charged with planning, financing and executing the attacks in India’s financial capital that killed 166 people in November, 2008.

With inputs from PTI