A Pakistani court conducting the trial of Lashkar-e-Tayiba's Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and six other suspects in the Mumbai attacks on Tuesday issued a notification stating that a judicial panel would visit India on March 14 to interview key Indian officials as part of the probe into the 2008 strikes.
Anti-terrorism court judge Shahid Rafique named a senior official of the Interior Ministry as coordinator for the judicial commission's visit in response to an application from defence lawyers, sources said.
"The court has notified that the commission will visit India on March 14 and appointed a coordinator," Khwaja Haris Ahmed, the counsel for Lakhvi, told PTI.
The commission will travel from Lahore to Delhi before going to Mumbai. "They (the authorities) want us to complete some formalities in Delhi," said Ahmed.
The Indian government had earlier asked Pakistan to send the commission between February 1 and 10. However, the panel could not go ahead with the visit due to various reasons, including questions that were raised about its constitution.
The Pakistani commission is scheduled to interview the magistrate who recorded the confession of Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving attacker, the police officer who led the investigation in Mumbai and two doctors who conducted the autopsies of the terrorists and victims.
Lakhvi and six other suspects have been charged with planning, financing and executing the attacks that killed 166 people in November 2008.
However, their trial has stalled over various technical issues for the past year. Pakistani prosecutors have said the commission's visit to India is necessary to take forward the trial.
