Pak court temporarily halts Mumbai attack case hearing

TIL Desk/World/Islamabad/ A Pakistani court has temporarily halted the hearing of the 2008 Mumbai attack case to let the prosecutor produce more witnesses.  Ten Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists had sailed into Mumbai from Karachi and carried out coordinated attacks, killing 166 people and injuring over 300 in November 2008.

The trial, underway in an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan against seven activists, has made little headway in more than 10 years as the Pakistani establishment has been claiming lack of enough evidence against them.

A divisional bench of Islamabad High Court, comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhter Kiyani, on Tuesday conducted hearing on a petition by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) seeking stay on anti-terrorism court proceedings.

A report said that the court initially granted one week stay in trial of the Mumbai attack case to let the prosecutor to summon some of the 19 witnesses for testimony. During the hearing, FIA prosecutor Akram Qureshi appeared in the court. Justice Kiyani remarked several witnesses were not appearing due to fear and the whereabouts of some others were unknown.