For fourth time, Pakistan transfers 26/11 judge

NEW DELHI: In what is seen here as a tactic to delay the trial of the Mumbai terror attack's perpetrators, Pakistan has once against transferred the judge hearing the 26/11 case against seven jailed Lashkar terrorists. This is the fourth time that the trial judge of the concerned Rawalpindi court has been transferred in the past two years.

The judge, Rana Nisar Ahmed, hearing the case since November 2010, was transferred from the Rawalpindi court to the Shankargarh court in Punjab province of Pakistan on Saturday.

The Rawalpindi court has been hearing the Mumbai terror attack case against seven accused – Lashkar commanders Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Zarar Shah, Abu-al-Qama and others – since 2009. Before Ahmed, three other judges of the same court had been transferred forcing the case to drag on without any conclusion in sight.

The matter is being delayed despite India asking Pakistan time and again to bring the 26/11 perpetrators to justice at the earliest. "That could be the only sign of Pakistan showing its earnestness in fighting terrorism," said an official.

Pakistan has, however, been delaying the matter in more ways than one. Despite India's readiness to welcome a Pakistani panel here in connection with 26/11 probe, Islamabad has so far not even conveyed to New Delhi when its judicial commission will come here to take the statement of the magistrate who had recorded the confessional statement of the lone surviving Lashkar gunman, Ajmal Kasab.

India had agreed to the Pakistani proposal of sending its judicial commission during the home secretary-level talks between the two countries here in March.

Besides recording the statement of additional chief metropolitan magistrate R V Sawant Waghule, the panel is supposed to also record the statements investigating officer Ramesh Mahale and the doctors who conducted the post-mortem of the terrorists killed by commandos during the Mumbai terror attack.

An official here said that Pakistan should have immediately informed its court about India's consent and got the required permission. But, the neighbouring country has so far not take any action on this nor has it given any information to India about it. The transfer of the trial court judge will further delay the matter, he added.

Islamabad had been maintaining that it was necessary to send the commission to India as part of the judicial process of the 26/11 case in Pakistan and had promised on March 29 that it would do so within four to six weeks – i.e. by May 15.

"But more than 10 weeks after the home secretary-level talks, nothing has been heard from Islamabad on the proposed judicial commission's visit to India," an official said.

Pakistan's contention is that the charges against the seven Lashkar terrorists are based on Kasab's statement in Mumbai and hence the magistrate and the IO's statements are necessary for submission before the anti-terror court there. "But the country now does not appear to be serious about this," said the official.