Mumbai attacks: Pak asks India to reply to 30 queries soon
Mumbai attacks: Pak asks India to reply to 30 queries soon
Islamabad: Pakistan on Sunday asked India to reply as soon as possible to its 30 questions seeking further information on the Mumbai attacks, saying it had only 13 days left in the remand of the suspects taken into custody by it in connection with the terror strikes.
Referring to the 30 queries that were handed over to New Delhi on 12 February along with Pakistan’s response to the Indian dossier on the Mumbai attacks, interior ministry chief Rehman Malik said that “unfortunately till today (the replies have) not been received."
“I request (Indian authorities) to send that reply as quick as possible so that my prosecutors can collect the evidence and prosecution is done really and in a successful manner to bring the culprits to justice," Malik told a news conference at the interior ministry.
“I will again urge my counterpart to please pay some more attention to it. We have only 13 days left in the remand (of suspects)," Malik said and identified the four suspects currently in police custody as Lashker-e-Taiba operatives Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Zarar Shah, Abu al Qama and Hamad Amin Sadiq.
On 12 February, Malik had said Pakistan had detained six suspects and identified two more who are still at large. However, today he said that only four suspects were in custody.
Malik said a case had been registered by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in connection with the Mumbai attacks and eight persons were booked.
However, he did not identify all these persons. The evidence provided by India “will make the prosecution’s case more tenable," Malik said.
He also pointed out that while suspects could be held in police custody for 90 days in India, Pakistani laws allowed police remand for only 30 days.
Giving further details of Pakistan’s probe into the 26 November Mumbai attacks, Malik said information on the incident was received from India on 5 January. This information was passed on to the FIA on 16 January.
The FIA then conducted an investigation and submitted its report to the Interior Ministry on 3 February.
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