India gives fresh dossier on Mumbai terror attack to Pakistan

NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday handed over to Pakistan a fresh dossier of evidence on last year's Mumbai terror attacks containing statements of key witnesses, including a magistrate and FBI officials, with the hope that the prosecution in Pakistan would be expedited.

The 7th dossier was handed over by Y K Sinha, Joint Secretary (Pakistan Division) in the Ministry of External Affairs, to Pakistan's Deputy High Commissioner Rifat Masood who was called to the South Block for the same.

The new dossier is believed to consist of statements of witnesses, including the deposition of a Mumbai magistrate before whom the lone captured Pakistani gunman Mohammad Ajmal Kasab had given a voluntary confession of his alleged involvement in the attacks.

In his statement to the magistrate, Kasab had confessed that the conspiracy for the 26/11 attacks was hatched in Pakistan by terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives including alleged mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.

Lakhvi has been arrested by Pakistan and is facing prosecution along with six others.

The dossier is also believed to include deposition of FBI officers who told the trial court in Mumbai that mobile phones recovered from terror sites were used by terrorists to communicate with their handlers in Pakistan during the terror siege.

Deposition of foreign nationals and seizures of some articles recovered from terror sites such as Hotels Taj and Oberoi and Nariman House are also believed to be part of the dossier.