Pakistan's interior minister Rehman Malik shows an information sheet of 26/11 accused during a press conference in Islamabad on Saturday. (AP)
Pakistan on Saturday said trial of the five accused in the Mumbai attacks would get underway in the next few days and that it has identified 12 more suspects, preparing the ground for next week's meeting in Egypt between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani.
"The first step was the investigation, which we have completed successfully. The second step is trial, which is going to start in the next few days," Interior Ministry Rehman Malik told a news conference after he shared the findings of the probe with India's acting High Commissioner Manpreet Vohra.
Malik said 13 people, including Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist captured in India for the Mumbai attacks, had been declared "proclaimed offenders" by Pakistani authorities. He handed over a dossier on Pakistan's probe and 15 questions seeking more information on the attacks to the Indian side.
Federal Investigation Agency chief Tariq Khosa, who was present at the news conference, said an interim chargesheet had been filed against the five suspects on April 28 and their trial had commenced.
After getting further information from India, investigators had prepared a second and updated chargesheet, he said.
Singh and Gilani are likely to meet on July 16 in Sharm-el-Sheikh on the sidelines of the NAM Summit after Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and his Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir discuss what Islamabad has done to bring to book perpetrators of November 26 attacks and dismantle terror infrastructure.
Khosa said "the further evidence will be placed before the court...We are going to make a real professional effort to get a conviction and that will be the effort of the Pakistan government."
The trial of the five suspects: LeT operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Zarar Shah, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Abu al Qama and Shahid Jamil Riaz is being conducted by an anti-terror court in Rawalpindi.
The trial has been held up due to the non-availability of a judge and Malik indicated proceedings would get underway during the next hearing set for July 18.
Malik said Pakistani investigators had been able to link Lakhvi, a former close aide of LeT founder Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, to the Mumbai attacks.
"We have linked him with this matter, and we have not just (depended) on the statement of Kasab, we have connected (Lakhvi) with material evidence," he said.
The updated chargesheet accuses Lakhvi of masterminding the attacks while Zarar Shah alias Abdul Wajid has been charged for being a facilitator and using his computer expertise to aid the attackers.