MHA writes to MEA about NIA team`s visit to Pak

New Delhi: The Home Ministry on Wednesday asked the Ministry of External Affairs to convey to Pakistan its desire to send a team of NIA to examine the evidence collected against November 2008 Mumbai terror attack masterminds before it allows the second visit of a Pakistani judicial commission.

In a formal communication, to be sent to Islamabad, the Home Ministry conveyed that it wanted the NIA team to meet the witnesses of the 26/11 case in which LeT commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and six others are the prime accused. The case is being heard by a special court in Rawalpindi`s high-security Adila jail. The issue was first raised by Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde when he had met his Pakistani counterpart Rehman Malik on the sidelines of the SAARC ministerial meeting in the Maldives last week. Shinde had told Malik that the team of National Investigation Agency should be allowed to visit Pakistan before New Delhi allows the second visit of the that country`s judicial commission for cross examination of a magistrate who recorded the statement of terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab, investigating officer of the case and two doctors who performed the postmortem of the nine LeT terrorists who were killed by security forces in Mumbai in November, 2008. "The team will look at the material evidence collected by NIA which is probing the case there," a Home Ministry official said. Consent for meeting the witnesses of the 26/11 case is also being sought. PTI