Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar has asked Pakistan “to cooperate through legal channels” and speed up the 2008 Mumbai attacks trials, reported PTI. In a letter that he wrote to his counterpart Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry earlier this month, Jaishankar said “the entire strike was planned from Pakistan, was carried out by Pakistani nationals and all evidence are in Pakistan.”
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup said the letter was sent on September 6. He said, “The trial in the Mumbai terror attack and Pakistan has not moved expeditiously, although it will soon be eight years since that dastardly attack took place. In order to bring the guilty to book, our foreign secretary has recently written to his Pakistani counterpart, suggesting ways in which the trial could be expedited through cooperation through the legal channel.” Pakistan received the letter on September 9 and has not yet responded.
The step from India comes after Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency dropped charges against a former Lashkar-e-Taiba militant, claiming there was not enough evidence against him. Sufiyan Zafar was arrested in August for allegedly providing Rs 14,800 for the attacks that killed around 166 people in India's financial capital. Till date, Pakistani has arrested six other people for their involvement in the terror attack. One of the prime accused in the case, LeT chief Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, was released on bail in April 2015.
This is not the first time that India has asked Pakistan to expedite the trials. Over the last month, both India and United States issued multiple statements to put pressure on Pakistan, reported the Times of India.
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