Pakistan asks India to hand over Mumbai attacker

Pakistan has asked India to hand over the lone surviving gunman of the 2008 Mumbai attacks so that it can complete its own trial of seven suspects linked to the assault, officials said Sunday.

"We have sought India's help that he (Pakistani national Mohammed Ajmal Kasab) should be handed over to us so that the trial here can go forward," foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said.

Basit said that Pakistan on Sunday handed over to India six dossiers on its own investigation into Mumbai attacks, with a request that India in turn hand over Kasab and an Indian national, Fahim Ansari, who helped the attackers.

Pakistan is holding seven suspects linked to the November 26-29 attack on India's financial capital, including alleged mastermind of the operation, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative Zarar Shah.

India and Washington have both blamed the Mumbai attack on the LeT.

An anti-terrorism court in the garrison town of Rawalpindi indicted the seven men on the eve of the first anniversary of the attack, in which at least 166 people were killed and which ended a fragile peace process with Pakistan.

Since the indictment, Pakistani officials have implied that the seven suspects' trial cannot proceed unless Kasab, who was convicted in Mumbai last month after a year-long trial, is handed over as a witness.

Kasab, one of 10 gunmen who went on the three-day rampage through Mumbai, was convicted on March 31 on charges including murder and waging war on India and faces sentencing on May 3. Prosecutors have asked for the death penalty.

The other nine gunmen were killed by Indian security forces responding to the attack and their bodies were secretly buried in India in January.

When asked how could India extradite Kasab and Ansari to Pakistan, Basit replied: "It is not extradition per se. It is a legal requirement since the court has asked that Kasab be produced before it."

Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik has also said that Kasab is required to appear in Rawalpindi.

"Kasab's statement is of paramount importance in the Mumbai attack case, which is an important document and our courts need it," Associated Press of Pakistan quoted him as telling reporters late Saturday.

Malik said that India will also be requested to send to Rawalpindi the officials who recorded Kasab's statement for his trial in Mumbai.

"They must come Pakistan to make the case stronger. We have requested India and are hopeful that they will consider our request for justice," Malik said.

New Delhi has put pressure on Islamabad to speed up its probe of Pakistani militants linked to the Mumbai attack, a 60-hour siege that targeted hotels, the main railway station, a restaurant and a centre.

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