Mumbai

Police on Thursday sought time from a special court here for executing proclamation orders against six absconding accused, including LeT handlers Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack case, saying that they were awaiting response from the Union Home Ministry.

The court granted the request and adjourned the hearing to October 1.

The court had issued the proclamation orders in July for trying Saeed and other absconding accused in absentia (in their absence).

At the last hearing, the police had told the court that they had written to the Union Home Ministry for taking necessary steps to serve the proclamation order through Interpol against the accused who are in Pakistan.

On Thursday, special prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam informed the court that the police were yet to receive a response from the ministry, and sought 13 days' time to file the report on the execution of the order.

Any proclaimed offender who has absconded to evade trial can be tried in absentia under Section 356 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023.

The court has issued the proclamation against six accused: Hafiz Saeed, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Sajid Mir, Abu Alqama, Asim alias Abu Qahafa and Major Abdur Rehman Pasha. Their roles in the terror attack conspiracy were revealed by Ajmal Kasab and accused-turned-approver David Headley.

Kasab, the only Pakistani terrorist captured alive during the attack, was sentenced to death and hanged at Yerwada Central Jail in Pune on November 21, 2012.

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A total of 166 people, including six Americans, were killed in the November 2008 Mumbai terror attack in which 10 Pakistani terrorists attacked iconic locations in Mumbai and caused mayhem for more than 60 hours.