New Delhi: The trial of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and six other Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives charged in 26/11 will resume in a Pakistani anti-terrorism court on Saturday.
This after the Lahore High Court dismissed Lakhvi's plea seeking the transfer of his trial from Rawalpindi to Lahore.
A Pakistani court on October 31 dismissed a petition filed Lakhvi, a key accused in the Mumbai attacks case, seeking the transfer of his trial from Rawalpindi to Lahore.
Lahore High Court Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry, who had earlier reserved his decision in the matter, dismissed the petition and observed that the matter falls under the territorial jurisdiction of the Islamabad High Court.
Chaudhry said Lakhvi should approach the Islamabad High Court for the purpose.
Lakhvi, in the petition filed through his counsel Khwaja Sultan, had sought the transfer of his trial in an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi to Lahore on the grounds that he did not have confidence in the judge.
He had claimed that the judge was being influenced by the government and the Interior Ministry.
The petition further contended that the federal government had 'influenced' the anti-terrorism court to allow the formation of a commission to go to India to record the statements of witnesses to the Mumbai attacks and to cross-examine Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving attacker.
The proposal to form the commission was opposed by the lawyers defending the seven Pakistani nationals, including Lakhvi, charged with planning, financing and facilitating the 2008 attacks that killed 166 people in Mumbai.
(With additional inputs from PTI)
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