The Federal Investigation Agency had filed plea to proclaim him and Fahim Ansari proclaimed offenders in the 26/11 terror attacks case.
A Pakistani court has reserved its verdict on the maintainability of a petition filed by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for declaring Ajmal Kasab and Fahim Ansari proclaimed offenders in the 26/11 terror attacks case, which had been registered by the FIA.
Justices Rauf Ahmed Sheikh and Hasan Raza Pasha of the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore high court withheld the verdict about whether or not the FIA’s petition was maintainable.
The petition names the seven arrested accused, including chief operational commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, respondents. Apart from Lakhvi, the suspects are Zarar Shah, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Abu al-Qama, Shahid Jamil Riaz, Younas Anjum and Jamil Ahmed.
During the hearing of the case, special public prosecutor Malik Rab Nawaz Noon said the prosecution had named Kasab and Ansari as co-accused in the case and the trial court could proceed against the accused only after completing the process under sections 87 and 88 of the criminal procedure code against the absconding accused.
The public prosecutor said an application that had been moved in the trial court on March 13 (seeking that the two accused arrested in India be proclaimed as absconders) had been rejected.
The court said the two accused were not willfully being absent but were arrested in India before registration of the case in Pakistan.
The petitioner contended that the trial court should have followed provisions of relevant laws to declare them proclaimed offenders on technical grounds and that without concluding proceedings against Kasab and Ansari the court could not initiate the trial against the arrested accused.
A separate bench of the Lahore high court had ruled earlier that Kasab’s statement could not be used as evidence in a Pakistani court.
In an order on March 27, the Pakistani anti-terrorism court had turned down the FIA’s request to declare Kasab, the lone terrorist captured alive during the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and Ansari, another accused in the case in India, as fugitives.
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