Islamabad/Lahore: A Pakistani court on Tuesday
admitted a petition filed by authorities challenging a
decision by an anti-terrorism court, which is hearing the
Mumbai attacks case, not to declare Ajmal Kasab and Fahim
Ansari as fugitives.
The Rawalpindi-based bench of the Lahore High Court
comprising Justices Rauf Ahmed Sheikh and Hasan Raza Pasha
admitted the petition filed on April 10 by the Federal
Investigation Agency (FIA).
The court issued notices to the seven accused in the
Mumbai attacks case, including LeT's operations chief Zakiur
Rehman Lakhvi, and is yet to announce the date on when it will
begin hearing the matter.
The Special Investigation Group of the FIA, which
probed Pakistani links to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, had
challenged the anti-terrorism court's order rejecting a plea
to declare Kasab and Ansari as "proclaimed offenders" or
fugitives.
Sources said the FIA wants Kasab and Ansari to be
declared fugitives so that Kasab's confessional statement can
be used against the seven Pakistani suspects being tried by
the anti-terrorism court on charges of planning and
facilitating the Mumbai attacks.
Apart from Lakhvi, the suspects are Zarar Shah, Hamad
Amin Sadiq, Abu al-Qama, Shahid Jamil Riaz, Younas Anjum and
Jamil Ahmed.
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 issued 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.
The anti-terrorism court further said Kasab and Ansari
were in the custody of Indian authorities and facing trial in
a court in Mumbai.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, April 20, 2010, 21:36