26/11 case: Prosecution asks for shifting trial to Adiala jail in Pakistan

Prosecution lawyers in the 2008 Mumbai attacks case have entered a plea in a Pakistani anti-terrorism court to shift the trial back to the premises of a jail in Rawalpindi where the seven accused are lodged citing security concerns.
The prosecution lawyers submitted the application yesterday in the court conducting the trial for shifting the trial from the anti-terrorism court Rawalpindi back to Adiala Jail. “The trial should be shifted back to Adiala Jail after beefing up security there as there has been a threat to the life of both the judge and lawyers here at the ATC premises,” sources said.
The court admitted the petition and issued notices to the interior ministry and defence lawyers for the next hearing on May 21. No other witness showed up in the yesterday’s hearing. Anti-terrorism court Rawalpindi judge Attiquer Rehman had refused to hold proceedings of the case in Adiala Jail following a terror attack at a district court in Islamabad on March 3 and demanded the government to beef up security at the prison.
As the government did not entertain the judge’s request, he started conduction the trial at the anti-terrorism court Rawalpindi. Prosecution chief Chaudhry Azhar had requested the government to provide him security because of threats to his life. Azhar was absent from the yesterday’s hearing and another prosecution lawyer submitted the application.
In the last hearing, a teacher who reportedly taught Mumbai attacks convict Ajmal Kasab in Faridkot had told the court that Ajmal he knew was not the one hanged in India. Lashkar-e-Taiba operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Anjum have been charged with planning, financing and executing the attacks in India’s financial capital that killed 166 people in November, 2008. All the accused are jailed in Adiala prison.