India on Friday lodged a strong protest with Pakistan over the lack of progress in the trial of Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and six others charged with involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

The Pakistan document is thus not significantly different from what India says happened-except that it gives Saeed a complete miss. The Pakistan document is thus not significantly different from what India says happened-except that it gives Saeed a complete miss.

It is, however, quite another fact that Islamabad had five years ago clearly signalled its intention to not go after Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, the man New Delhi says masterminded the terrorist outrage. A chargesheet filed by Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency, accessed by Mail Today, names Lakhvi, the operational commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba, as the "mastermind of the Mumbai terrorist attack" while glossing over the alleged role of Saeed despite considerable evidence gathered by Indian and Western security agencies over his role in the incident.

The FIA chargesheet names the attackers, details their training and acquisition of supplies and firearms, and goes on to describe the attack in detail, even naming dozens of the victims. The Pakistan document is thus not significantly different from what India says happened-except that it gives Saeed a complete miss.

The chargesheet filed by the FIA in the anti-terrorism court on November 25, 2009 has nothing on Saeed even though Ajmal Kasab-the lone attacker who was captured alive-confessed that the LeT founder visited the 10 terrorists in Karachi and saw them off before they set sail for Mumbai in November 2008. The chargesheet states that the seven accused-Lakhvi, Hammad Amin Sadiq, Mazhar Iqbal alias Abu al-Qama, Abdul Wajid alias Zarrar Shah, Shahid Jamil Riaz, Jamil Ahmad and Younas Anjum-and 20 others set up training camps at Yousuf Goth in Karachi and at Mirpur Sakro in Thatta in Sindh province and obtained firearms, grenades and explosives for carrying out the attacks.

It acknowledges that Kasab, "a Pakistani national arrested in India", and the nine other attackers were trained in the camps in Sindh. "You accused Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, being operational commander of LeT, were mastermind of the Mumbai terror attack as you firstly received instructions and training and then imparted the same training, in the making and use of firearms, explosives, bombs and grenades to your coaccused, Kasab, and 9 other terrorists killed in India ," the chargesheet states.

The chargesheet, filed exactly a year after the attacks, said that the attackers targeted Taj Mahal Hotel, Oberoi Trident Hotel, Macchimar Colony, Cuffe Parade, Colaba, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station and Leopold Cafe and created terror and "a sense of fear and insecurity in the people at large in India and Pakistan".

"By your aforesaid acts of terrorism, you disrupted the trade between (Pakistan and India) and also disrupted normal civil life of people of the two countries," it said. These offences are punishable under Pakistan's Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997 as well the country's Penal Code.

Jamil Ahmad and Younas Anjum were charged with providing Pakistani Rs 3.98 million through banks in Karachi and Muzaffarabad for carrying out the attacks, while Mazhar Iqbal and Abdul Wajid were accused of directing the attackers through VOIP connections, mobile phones and satellite phones. The seven men were also charged with providing rented houses and acquiring inflatable boats, a Yamaha engine, cellphones, GPS systems and the boats Al-Fouz and Al-Hussaini for the attackers.

The chargesheet further states that Kasab and the other terrorists were "trained and launched from Pakistan, for carrying out the deadly terrorist attacks in Mumbai" that killed 166 people. Significantly, the chargesheet names dozens of Indian victims, with the first name in the list being that of policeman Tukaram Omble, who played a pivotal role in Kasab's capture.

The charade continued to play out in the corridors of power on Friday. In New Delhi, Ministry of External Affairs summoned Pakistan's Deputy High Commissioner Mansoor Khan and lodged a strong protest against the adjournment of the trial in Pakistan for the seventh time in a row on Wednesday. At the same time, Indian Deputy High Commissioner Gopal Baglay met Director General (South Asia) Riffat Masood in Islamabad and registered a similar protest.

Indian officials in both New Delhi and Islamabad sought "regular briefings on the progress of the trial and the investigation by Pakistani authorities", sources said. The Indian officials emphasised the "high importance India attaches to bringing to justice all those responsible in Pakistan for the Mumbai terror attacks," the sources said.

In recent months, prosecutors have refused to appear in the antiterrorism court in Rawalpindi conducting the trial, reportedly due to threats from the Jamaat-ud-Dawa and other extremists.



The last hearing on Wednesday was not held as the judge is on leave and the trial is expected to resume only in September, sources in Islamabad said. Pakistan said the government could do little in the ongoing trial. "Pakistan has an independent judiciary and the executive can only provide the prosecution the available evidence. We cannot interfere with the judiciary, which will decide the case on merit under the laws of the land," said Manzoor Ali Memon, spokesperson of the Pakistan High Commission.

