[DAWN] The Foreign Office on Friday said India has expressed its readiness to share material evidence regarding the Mumbai attacks with Pakistain.
"In reply to the Foreign Secretary of Pakistain’s letter, dated September 8, 2015, the Indian Foreign Secretary, in his letter of September 6, 2016, has expressed India’s readiness to share the material evidence, which Pakistain had been seeking for quite some time for the Mumbai trial," said Nafees Zakaria, spokesperson for the Foreign Office.
The spokesperson added that the material evidence and cross examination of prosecution witnesses is needed to proceed further with the trial in Pakistain as per the law of the land.
"Legal aspects and modalities of the proposal contained in the Indian Foreign Secretary’s letter are current being examined by our legal experts," elaborated Zakaria.
Earlier in August, the arrest of an alleged financier of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks has been termed a breakthrough in the otherwise stalled case, but it may delay the conclusion of the trial pending in an anti-terrorism court (ATC) since 2009.
In January, Islamabad asked the Indian government to send the 24 witnesses to Pakistain to testify against the seven suspects, including Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi
...an asset of the Pak govt and a big turban in Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is actually a redundant statement. Zak was the criminal mastermind behind the 2008 Mumbai attack. Despite what India's provided there is not enough evidence in this world for a Pak court to convict him or even to keep him in the calaboose for very long...
, the alleged criminal mastermind of the attacks.
Lakhvi and the other suspects -- Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hammad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younus Anjum -- are being tried by the ATC in Islamabad.
The prosecution completed the testimony of the 68 Pak witnesses earlier this year.
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