26/11: Pak asks India to provide additional evidence

“Our foreign secretary has written to India’s foreign secretary to provide additional evidence so that Mumbai case trial is competed. The response from the Indian side is still awaited,” said Foreign Office Spokesman Nafees Zakaria.

Zakaria, however, did not elaborate when exactly the letter was written.Pakistan arrested seven LeT-linked militants, including Lakhvi, for their role in the 2008 Mumbai attack, in which 166 people were killed. 

Mumbai attack mastermind Lakhvi, Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younis Anjum are accused of abetment to murder, attempted murder, planning and executing the Mumbai attack.

Lakhvi has been living at an undisclosed location, after he was released on bail a year ago. The other six suspects are in the Adiala Jail Rawalpindi. The case has been going on in the country for more than six years.

India has been urging Pakistan to complete the trial in the case at the earliest. It has said that enough evidence has been shared with Islamabad to prosecute the accused. However, Pakistani officials maintain that India has not provided enough evidence needed to successfully complete the trial.

Meanwhile, Zakaria said the dialogue was the only option to resolve all outstanding issues with India. “It has been said many times earlier that peace talks are the only way forward for relations between Pakistan and India,” he said.

Asked about threats against Pakistani artists in India by extremists, he said there are many people in India, who welcome and support artists and promote people-to-people exchanges between the two countries. 

He said religious tourism is part of such efforts and Pakistan has been encouraging it. Zakaria also said that influential US Senator John McCain would shortly visit Pakistan and hold important talks on various issues.