File Photo of Pakistan's Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) terrorist leader Hafiz Saeed
Prosecution lawyers on Wednesday asked the Pakistani Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) trying the seven accused in the 2008 Mumbai attacks case to beef up their security saying that the Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) activists had been threatening them and the witnesses.
The lawyers along with chief prosecutor Chaudhry Azhar on Wednesday submitted an application in the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Rawalpindi informing it that "We and the witnesses have been receiving threats from the Jamaat-Ud-Dawah (JuD) activists who want us to stop representing and pursuing the case".
In the application they alleged that a Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) activist was present in every court hearing in the courtroom and hurled threats at the witnesses outside the courtroom.
Court sources further told the Press Trust of India (PTI) that the prosecution chief also submitted a cellphone number to the court, from which the prosecution lawyers have been receiving threats from a JuD activist.
The court adjourned the hearing till May 28.
In the last hearing the prosecution had also filed an application in the court to shift the trial from ATC Rawalpindi to Adiala Jail because of security concerns.
Judge Attiquer Rehman had refused to hold the proceedings of the case in Adiala Jail following a terror attack at the district court in Islamabad on March 3 and demanded that the government increase security at the jail during the hearing.
Since the government did not entertain the judge's request, he started holding the case at the ATC Rawalpindi.
Lashkar-e-Taiba operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Anjum have been charged with planning, financing and executing the attacks in India's financial capital that killed 166 people in November, 2008.
All the accused are currently in Adiala Jail.
The JuD is the political arm of the Lashkar-e-Taiba led by terrorist leader Hafiz Saeed.