By IANS,
Mumbai : The trial of the Nov 26 Mumbai terror attacks is “important” to prove that Pakistan is a “terrorist state”, Maharashtra Home Minister Jayant Patil said here Wednesday.
Patil’s scathing indictment came on the eve of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani in Egypt and two days before US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lands in Mumbai.
Speaking at a function at the Police Club here late evening, Patil said: “Investigations have revealed that the conspiracy was hatched in Pakistan, the planning was done on Pakistani soil and the terrorists who attacked Mumbai were from Pakistan. This case, in which the lone captured gunman Mohammed Ajmal Amir alias Kasab stands trial, is important to prove that Pakistan is a terrorist state.”
He said there have been repeated terror attacks on Indian cities in the past but “this (trial) is an opportunity to prove that Pakistan is a terror state”, Patil observed.
Patil also lauded the efforts of Mumbai Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria for spearheading the 26/11 probe and filing an “excellent charge-sheet” in the case.
The minister said he had discussed the progress of the trial with Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam several times. “We want to complete the 26/1 trial at the earliest.”
Appreciating the role of Mumbai police in responding to the terror attacks, Patil said police official of 12 countries have so far visited to study the attacks and the response of the city police, which managed to capture Kasab alive.
Citing several examples, Patil said many of the police officials who went to accost the terrorists did not wait for sophisticated weapons, they went with whatever they had.
Even after seeing the weapons of the terrorists, they responded to the attacks, he said.