Pakistan judge hearing Mumbai 26/11 terror trial changed for 8th time

Islamabad For the eighth time the judge of the antiterrorism court conducting the trial of seven Pakistani suspects charged with involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks was changed today as the case was transferred to another courtJudge Kausar Abbas Zaidi of the AntiTerrorism Court in Islamabad who had granted bail to Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi ndash the 2008 Mumbai terror attack mastermind had been conducting the trial for the last three monthsToday the case has been transferred to the ATCII Islamabad The judge of new court will begin the hearing on January 28 prosecution chief Chaudhry Azhar saidTo a question as to why the case was transferred to another court Azhar who is also a special prosecutor of the Federal Investigation Agency said A total of 31 cases each have been divided between the ATCI and ATCII Islamabad by the judicial authorities and the Mumbai case is transferred to the latterBesides Zaidi Attiquer Rehman Shahid Rafique Malik Muhammad Akram Awan and Pervez Ali Shah were among the judges who remained associated with the Mumbai trial since it began in 2009No proceedings of the case were held today after the judicial authorities notified transfer of the case to the ATCII The court office adjourned the hearing till January 28Pakistan faced strong reaction from India following the bail of Lakhvi on December 18Transfer of the case from Mr Zaidi may be seen in this backdrop a source in the court said He said the transfer of the case might cause further delay in the caseZaidi had cited weak evidence the registration of the FIR invoking irrelevant sections and hearsay evidence against the suspect in his bail order He noted that the main evidence on the basis of which Lakhvi was implicated in the case was the confessional statement of Ajmal Kasab who was executed in an Indian jail on November 21 2012The evidence against Lakhvi was based on the statements of the officials of the Crime Investigation Department CID which apparently were insufficient to refuse the grant of bail to the accusedThe government has challenged the trial courts decision to grant Lakhvi bail in the Islamabad High CourtA twomember bench headed by Justice Shaukat Siddiqui had summoned Lakhvi for arguments in the case on next hearing The court has not yet fixed the date of hearing The prosecution informed the court in its petition that the trial court ignored testimony in the 2611 case while granting bail to LakhviThe fact remains that such like cases of defunct terrorist organisations are not so easy to be conducted and especially the prosecution in such cases is the most difficult job in our country for the last many yearsIn this case the learned trial judge of ATC after the terrorist attack in Islamabad courts of March 2013 refused to visit Adiala Jail for a long time due to security reasons Even the prosecutors of this case have been receiving threats through cell phones during the proceedings which were duly conveyed to the concerned authorities The witnesses are also not secured and reluctant to depose against the accused persons in the given situationA major part of the evidence has been recorded and the rest will not take more than three months to record and therefore the observation of the ATCs judge that the trial may take years to conclude is not correct the prosecution saidLakhvi has been detained in Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi under Maintenance of Public Order MPO Lakhvi and six others Abdul Wajid Mazhar Iqbal Hamad Amin Sadiq Shahid Jameel Riaz Jamil Ahmed and Younis Anjum have been charged with planning and executing the Mumbai attacks in November 2008 that left 166 people dead