10 November,2011 02:06 PM IST | | Agencies
Ajmal Amir Qasab, convicted by an Indian court for the 26/11 Mumbai attack, is a terrorist and should be sent to the gallows, Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik said here Thursday after delegation level talks between the two countries.
He said the Pakistani judicial commission looking into the terror attack would be coming to India soon and would positively impact the trial of those accused in the Mumbai terror attack.
"The judicial commission has a limited mandate. They'll be in India any time after we hear from the Indian side. They will submit the report after the visit which is going to give a positive impact to the judicial process (of 26/11)," Malik told reporters at the Shangri La Hotel.
Talks between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan's Yousuf Raza Gilani were preceded by delegation level discussions between the two countries.
The judicial commission report, Malik said, would help plug the legal lacuna and move forward the trial of those accused in the Nov 26 Mumbai terror attack.
India had last week welcomed Pakistan's decision to send a judicial commission to interview witnesses connected with the 26/11 terror probe.
"We look forward to the visit of the judicial commission," Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai had told reporters Nov 5.
Pakistan's High Commissioner Shahid Malik has conveyed to Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram that the Pakistani government would soon be sending the commission to take forward the process of bringing to justice the perpetrators and conspirators of the Mumbai carnage.
The commission is expected to record the statements of Mumbai Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate R.V. Sawant Waghule and investigating officer Ramesh Mahale, who had recorded the confessional statement of Ajmal Amir Qasab, convicted of the terror attack.
Islamabad has contended that the charges against seven LeT militants, including its 'operation commander' Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, who are currently lodged in a Pakistani jail, were based on Qasab's statement and hence the magistrate and the investigating officer's statements were necessary to furnish before the anti-terror court.
At least 166 people were killed in the 26/11 attack by 10 Pakistan-based terrorists in Mumbai.
