26/11 case: Pak commission to inspect boat used by terrorists

A Pakistani anti-terrorism court has ordered sending a commission of prosecution and defence lawyers to Karachi to examine a boat used by 10 lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists to reach India for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

“After hearing arguments from prosecution and defence lawyers, the anti-terrorism court (ATC), Islamabad, which held the hearing at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi ordered the formation of a commission to inspect Al-Fauz boat (used by Mumbai attack terrorists) in Karachi,” a court official said. He said the commission would be notified once the prosecution and defence lawyers submit the names of their nominees. “After notification, the commission may visit Karachi and inspect the boat early next month,” he said.

An ATC Judge had on Tuesday heard the Mumbai attack case and accepted the request filed by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to send a judicial commission to examine the boat as it was difficult to produce it before the court. Besides examining the boat, the commission would also record the statement of a witness, Munir, during its visit to Karachi.

Earlier, the Islamabad high court had set aside the trial court’s verdict of not allowing sending a commission to Karachi, terming it “flawed and not in accordance with law” and allowed examination of the boat in the port city. In May, the prosecution had challenged the trial court’s decision to reject its plea to form a panel to examine the boat used by Mumbai attack terrorists so that the vessel could be made “case property”.

According to the FIA, the attackers used three boats, including Al Fauz, to reach Mumbai from Karachi. It said the security agencies had also traced the shop and its owner from where the culprits bought the engine and the boat, while a bank and a money exchange company used for the transaction of money were also traced.

Al-Fauz is in the custody of Pakistani authorities in Karachi, from where the 10 terrorists, armed with AK-47s and hand grenades, had left for India on November 23, 2008, to carry out the Mumbai attack that claimed 166 lives.