India may turn down Pak plea for Fahim's questioning in 26/11

The country is likely to reject the demand of Pakistan to allow questioning of alleged LeT terrorist Fahim Ansari and also convey to that country to show some seriousness in getting the main accused in Mumbai terror attack arrested.

The country is likely to reject the demand of Pakistan to allow questioning of alleged LeT terrorist Fahim Ansari and also convey to that country to show some seriousness in getting the main accused in Mumbai terror attack arrested.

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The reponse by India in this manner is likely after the Union Home Home Ministry examined the list of demands made by Pakistan which included questioning of Ansari, who was acquitted by a Special court along with another Indian accused Sabauddin Ahmed.

The duo was named by the elite crime branch of Mumbai police as the people responsible for carrying out reconnaissance of targets for Lashker-e-Taiba(LeT) in Mumbai ahead of the attacks.

As the country was a few days away from commemmorating the second anniversary of 26/11, sources in the Home Ministry said on Wednesday in Islamabad that it was only delaying the process of law and not actually punishing the guilty which included founder chief of Lashker Hafeez Saeed and his close aides Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Muzzamil.

India may also raise with Pakistan the very slow pace of the trial ofseven 26/11 accused in that country due to "unreasonable" demands made to India which included post-mortem report of 166 dead victims and nine terrorists.

During the discussions within the ministry, a list of dossiers from Islamabad had been discussed threadbare and some officials commented about the apparent frivolous questions which included details of the shipping boat used by the 10 terrorists who landed at the Mumbai coast on the ill-fated day.

Islamabad has been expressing its desire to question Ansari in the Mumbai attack case. Former Commissioner of Mumbai Police Hasan Gafoor and the then Joint Commissioner (Crime) Rakesh Maria had repeatedly claimed that Ansari and Ahmed had carried out reconnaissance of various targets attacked by LeT terrorists on November 26, 2008.

But the special judge M L Tahliyani had dismissed the evidence against them as "unreliable". "Prosecution evidence against Ansari and Ahmed is unreliable...evidence falls short and cannot be accepted," the judge observed in his ruling.

The case against these two was considerably weakened by the confession in an American court by US terror accused David Headley that he had carried out a recce of the targets for the Lashkar attackers.

After Headley's confession of carrying out pre-attack reconnaissance for the Lashkar assault on Mumbai, embarrassing questions had started surfacing for investigators.