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    Pakistan will have to bug 26/11 masterminds to give India their voice samples

    Synopsis

    Draft legislation intended by Pakistan to address India's demands on 26/11 trial only provides for electronic surveillance of persons.

    ET Bureau

    NEW DELHI: Pakistan will have to tap phones of 26/11 masterminds to give India their voice samples. After the home ministry scrutinised the draft of Pakistan's 'Investigation for Fair Trial Bill, 2012,' introduced in its national legislature to address India's demands on 26/11, it found that the terrorists had sufficient protection in the statute to refuse the state's request for voice samples.

    Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik had cited the legislation to home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde at their meeting in Rome to suggest a way out to collecting voice samples of the accused without their consent.

    However, home ministry officials say the legislation only provides for electronic surveillance of persons and Pakistan may have to record voice samples surreptitiously, through phone taps or bugging.

    India wants the voice samples of the seven accused facing trial in Pakistan, including LeT chief commander Zaki-Ur-Rehman Lakhvi, and those on the run, like LeT's Sajid Mir, two ISI officers named Major Iqbal and Major Sameer Ali and a former Pakistan Army Officer, Abdur Rehman Pasha.

    India has also suggested that once the voice samples are taken by Pakistan, India was prepared to let them be tested by an agency of a foreign country like the US to determine if the voices on tape intercepted by India during the 26/11 attacks matched the samples.

     

    Home ministry officials, however, see the bill as another delaying tactic on Pakistan's part. "For Pakistan, mastermind like Sajid Mir or the two ISI officers do not even exist...Pakistan denies their identity. So whose phone will they tap? As regards the persons who are in jail and had earlier refused to give their voice samples, the new law may be handy for Pakistan to maybe bug their cells to get their voice samples which under the new law will be considered admissible evidence," a home ministry official told ET.

    However, there is skepticism in the establishment here as Pakistan has been promising such a law since 2010. "Much earlier, Pakistan has promised us that they will bring an ordinance that will enable them to provide us voice samples but their law was severely criticised for intrusion of privacy. Now, finally, they have brought a bill to their legislature on September 5," the home ministry official added.

    Earlier, the trial court had rejected the Pakistan government's plea to record the voice samples of the accused without their consent, which Pakistan has challenged in the high court. "Pakistan has promised that if the higher courts also reject their plea, the new law will enable them to give the voice samples," the official said.

    The draft of the Pakistani bill authorises the state to tap phone calls and intercept all other private communications in order to catch terrorists. The law enables law-enforcement agencies to collect prior to issuance of a formal warrant any data or material "through audio visual devices, CCTV, still photography, bugging, observation or any mode of modern devices or techniques" and will cover emails, SMS, and computer based or cell phone based communications.

    The draft law says it will empower agencies to put militants under surveillance, trace and catch them and get them punished by submitting high-tech evidences. The law also says covert surveillance, human intelligence, wire tapping and communication interception are powers required by the agencies.



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