New Delhi: Despite promises to expedite the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack trial in Pakistan, the prosecution team chief said the government will not file a fresh petition in court seeking 26/11 mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi's voice sample.
Lakhvi's lawyer Rizwan Abbasi too said his client cannot be forced to give a voice sample. "There is no as such law in Pakistan which can force anyone to submit voice sample. If my client wishes he will not submit sample of voice," said Abbasi.
"If the government files a fresh petition in the trial court requesting for obtaining voice sample of Lakhvi, we will reply it legally in court," he added.
The revelation comes after Pakistan sources told CNN-IBN that the government is working on a mechanism to meet India's demand for Lakhvi's voice samples and the issue will be discussed by the National Security Advisors of the two nations.
Reacting to this, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said, "Today you have Lakhvi's lawyer saying that he will not give the voice samples which completely demolishes the entire basis of Indo-Pak joint statement even before the ink has dried on it. These joint statements etc are nothing but platitudes."
The development comes just days after Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi announced that the two nations had agreed to share voice samples to expedite the 26/11 Mumbai attack trial.
Pakistan had granted bail to Lakhvi in December 2014 over lack of evidence.
Lakhvi and six others - Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younis Anjum - have been charged with planning and executing the Mumbai attack in November, 2008 that left 166 people dead.
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