Addu Atoll (Maldives): Ajmal Amir Kasab, 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.
"Kasab
is a terrorist, a non-state actor who should go to gallows and his
accomplices too. So should perpetrators of the Samjhauta Express blast,"
said Malik.
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.
Malik said that if the Judicial Commission
gets credible evidence of any Pakistani’s involvement in the Mumbai
carnage, it would help the Pakistan Government in prosecuting the
accused in his country.
"Once that Commission will go to India,
its findings are important for the judicial process in Pakistan. When
the findings are there, they will be covering all the legal sides. Then
there will be some judicially-satisfactory statement," he said.
Asked
how long the Judicial Commission would stay in India, Malik said it
would be there for three-four days as long as "you can accept them as
guest."
To a question on when the trial would complete, the
Minister said as soon as the report comes, the process will begin "but
it is too early to say how".
On the release of JuD founder Hafiz
Saeed, he said, "He was bailed out by the highest court of Pakistan and
the government can’t do anything about it".
"A list of banned
organisations was issued before Id and there was no credible evidence
that Jamat ud Dawa was working otherwise," he added.
Malik also denied that his country had sheltered the Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin LAden.
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 Kasab, convicted of the terror attack. Online
