Pak, India in touch on 26/11 commission's visit issue: FO

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani officials are in touch with their Indian counterparts to finalise the visit of a commission to India to record the testimony of Ajmal Kasab and other key witnesses in the Mumbai attacks case, the Foreign Office here said today.

" Pakistani and Indian officials are in touch with each other on the issue of sending a commission to India and work is in progress. The Foreign Office is in the loop," Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said.

He was responding to a question during the weekly news briefing on a Pakistani commission visiting India to record the testimony of key witnesses, including Kasab, the lone surviving Mumbai attacker.

The issue of the commission's visit also figured in a telephonic conversation yesterday between Interior Minister Rehman Malik and his Indian counterpart P Chidambaram.

Malik said the panel intended to visit India to interview Indian officials and study evidence.

Chidambaram said he would respond to the Pakistani proposal after consulting legal experts.

Malik recently said the visit of the commission is imperative to take forward the trial of seven Pakistani suspects, including Lashker-e-Taiba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, charged with involvement in planning and facilitating the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that killed 166 people.

The anti-terrorism court conducting the trial of the seven suspects has asked Pakistani prosecutors to inform it at the next hearing on October 16 as to whether Indian authorities have granted permission for the commission's visit.

However, lawyers defending the suspects have said they will not join the commission.