Police get 13 more days to execute proclamation orders against Hafiz Saeed, five other 26/11 accused

The court granted the extension after special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said that the prosecution was still awaiting a response from the union home ministry on serving the orders through Interpol

MUMBAI: A special court on Thursday allowed the police 13 more days to execute proclamation orders against Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed and five other Pakistan-based wanted accused in the 26/11 terror attack which killed 166 people.

Police get 13 more days to execute proclamation orders against Hafiz Saeed, five other 26/11 accused

The court granted the extension after special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said that the prosecution was still awaiting a response from the union home ministry on serving the orders through Interpol.

The six accused are Saeed, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Sajid Mir, Abu Alqama, Asim alias Abu Qahafa and Major Abdur Rehman Pasha. The court had issued proclamation orders against them in July as part of the process to prosecute them in absentia under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).

The prosecution has relied on evidence concerning their alleged roles in the conspiracy, including the accounts of Ajmal Kasab, the lone attacker captured alive, and US-based accused-turned-approver David Coleman Headley.

Thursday’s extension came nearly a month after the police told the court that they had approached the home ministry to facilitate service of the proclamation orders through Interpol. The ministry acknowledged the request on August 3, according to the prosecution’s earlier submission, but the police have not yet received the response required to complete the process, Nikam said.

The 26/11 attacks, carried out by 10 Pakistani terrorists in Mumbai in November 2008, killed 166 people, including 26 foreign nationals, and left the city under siege for more than 60 hours. Kasab was subsequently convicted and hanged at Yerwada Central Jail in Pune on November 21, 2012.