5 prosecution witnesses in Mumbai attacks case cross-examined

Islamabad: Lawyers of LeT commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and six other Pakistanis charged with involvement in the Mumbai attacks on Saturday cross-examined five prosecution witnesses who had testified against the accused.

The five prosecution witnesses, including officials of the Federal Investigation and operatives of intelligence agencies, were cross-examined for several hours during a hearing behind closed doors at the high security Adiala Jail in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, officials told PTI. After the completion of the cross-examination, Judge Chaudhry Habib-ur-Rehman adjourned the proceedings till December 1. The judge said an application filed by the prosecution seeking day-to-day hearings of the case would be taken up at the next hearing. "The witnesses from FIA and the intelligence agencies have appeared six to seven times in court and the defence finally completed the cross-examination today," chief prosecutor Chaudhry Zulifqar Ali told PTI. "The witnesses are feeling very relieved," he said without giving details of the proceedings. Ali said the prosecution had filed an application seeking day-to-day hearings of the case as considerable time had lapsed since the accused were charged. The five witnesses who were cross-examined today had earlier informed the court about the transfer of funds from Pakistan to the US to acquire Voice over Internet Protocol connections that were used by the terrorists who stormed India`s financial hub in November 2008. They told the judge that USD 250 were transferred to a New Jersey-based firm to buy VoIP connections used for communications between the terrorists in Mumbai and their handlers in Pakistan. The witnesses also gave the court details of the training camps where the attackers had prepared for the assault on Mumbai. During a public hearing organised by a parliamentary panel on September 28, former FIA chief Tariq Pervez Khosa had said that sleuths had uncovered two Lashkar-e-Taiba training camps at Thatta and Karachi, the capital of Sindh province, that were used by militants involved in the Mumbai attacks. The seven suspects, including LeT operations commander Lakhvi, have been charged with planning, financing and executing the attacks that killed 166 people. PTI