The visit of a Pakistani judicial commission to India for the second time to cross examine four witnesses in the 26/11 attacks case continues to remain uncertain with Islamabad’s failure to fix dates for the tour.
Though Islamabad has not given any reason for the delay in the commission’s visit, sources said hanging of LeT terrorist Ajmal Kasab and recent border skirmishes along the LoC, where an Indian solider was beheaded, might be the causes.
“We have conveyed to Pakistan long ago about our willingness to host the Pakistani judicial panel. But so far there is no information from them when the panel will come,” a senior home ministry official said.
The agreement on the visit of the second Pakistani judicial commission to Mumbai was finalised on December 25, 2012 in Islamabad following several rounds of discussions on complex technical and legal issues between a four-member visiting Indian delegation and Pakistani officials.
The home ministry also got approval of the Bombay high court for the visit of the Pakistani panel and cross examination of the four witnesses of the Mumbai attack case.
The witnesses are metropolitan magistrate Rama Vijay Sawant-Waghule, who recorded the confessional statement of Kasab, chief investigating officer Ramesh Mahale and two doctors from the state-run Nair and J.J. Hospitals who had conducted autopsies of nine terrorists.
The cross examination of the four witnesses is required to take the ongoing 26/11 case in a Rawalpindi court to its logical conclusion.