26/11 trial is being speeded up: Salman Bashir

NEW DELHI: Ahead of the fifth anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks, Pakistan today dismissed the suggestion that it was conducting a "sham trial" of the accused and said the process is being speeded up.

"The fact is that the executive is doing, the prosecution is doing all that it can. Now this trial is being speeded up. Let me tell you that," Pakistan's outgoing High Commissioner to India Salman Bashir said.

He made these remarks to Karan Thapar in a television interview when told that the perception in India is that a sham trial being stage in Islamabad.

He said that notwithstanding what people question, "the fact is the legal system, the judicial system is more or less the same on both sides. Both sides need to cooperate more to get this expedited".

Asked for his reaction over the fact that during the past five years, the judge has been changed six times and court adjourns immediately after meeting, Bashir said it was "unfortunate" that the whole post-26/11 scenario has not been quite objectively understood in India.

He also sought to dismiss the content in a new book 'The Siege' which not only suggests that LeT leader Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, a key person allegedly under trial and in jail, enjoys conjugal visits from his wife but gives evidence against Hafiz Sayed's involvement in the terror attack.

"I don't think that is quite an accurate description... The narrative needs to be checked," he said.

To a pointed question on whether Pakistan will act against the accused, he said, "We like to be considered as a country governed by the rule of the law. If there is something A, B or C has violated, he ought to be picked up."