Panel to speak to Pakistan officials on terror attack

New Delhi: A Pakistani judicial commission begins a four-day visit to India on Wednesday and will record the statements of key officials related to the 26/11 Mumbai carnage probe, an important step Islamabad says will quicken the trial of the Mumbai terror accused.

The judicial commission from Pakistan is expected to comprise 12 people, including defence lawyers Khwaja Haris, Riya Akram Choudhary, Fakhar Haayat, Raja Ehsan Allah Khan and Esam Bin Haris, Special Public Prosecutors Choudhary Mohammad Azhar and Choudhary Ali and court official Azad Khan.

The panel will be in Mumbai on Thursday to record the statements of Ramesh Mahale, an investigating officer and R.V. Sawant Waghule, the magistrate who recorded the confessional statement of the lone surviving Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab, government sources said.

Kasab was among 10 Pakistanis who attacked Mumbai November 26, 2008, and unleashed a mayhem in the city that killed 166 people and injured several others.

The judicial panel will also question Nair Hospital Medical Officer (forensic department) Shailesh Mohit and state government-run J J Hospital's Medical Officer (forensic department) Ganesh Nitukar, who conducted the autopsies of the terrorists and victims.

Special Public Prosecutor in the 26/11 terror attack trial Ujjwal Nikam would accompany Indian officers to be questioned by the Pakistani panel.

Waghule and Mahale have been summoned on March 16, said sources. The statements of the doctors will be recorded on March 17.