Foreign Office said on Friday that India has expressed readiness to share the material evidence with Pakistan regarding the 2008 Mumbai attacks. "In reply to the Foreign Secretary of Pakistan's letter, dated September 08, 2015, the Indian Foreign Secretary, in his letter of September 06, 2016, has expressed India's readiness to share the material evidence, which Pakistan had been seeking for quite some time for the Mumbai trial", Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said while responding to media queries.
He said that the material evidence and the cross examination of prosecution witnesses are needed to proceed further with the trial in Pakistan as per our law of the land. "Legal aspects and modalities of the proposal contained in the Indian Foreign Secretary's letter are currently being examined by our legal experts", he added. According to Indian media reports, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar on Thursday wrote to his Pakistani counterpart, suggesting ways in which Pakistan could expedite the trial.
"The trial in the Mumbai terror attack and Pakistan has not moved expeditiously, although it will soon be eight years since that dastardly attack took place. In order to bring the guilty to book, our Foreign Secretary has recently written to his Pakistani counterpart, suggesting ways in which the trial could be expedited through cooperation through the legal channel", said Vikas Swarup, Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson.
India blames Lashkar-e-Taiba and its commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi of masterminding the Mumbai attacks. As many as 166 people were killed and over 300 wounded when gunmen attacked Mumbai on November 26, 2008. Lakhvi along with other suspects namely Mazhar Iqbal, Abdul Wajid, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Hammad Amin Sadiq, Jamil Ahmed and Younus Anjum have been under trial in the country's anti-terrorism court (ATC) since 2009.