ISLAMABAD, Feb 23: Pakistan has asked India to provide the eye-witness account of police constable Arun Jadhav, who was the lone survivor of the attack on the car carrying Anti-Terror Squad Chief Hemant Karkare on the first day of Mumbai attack, saying its investigators probing the terror strike needed to examine it.

This demand was made in the ‘30 plus 2 questions’ handed over to India in the nine-page reply to its (Indian) dossier on the 26/11 Mumbai attack, a copy of which is available with Dawn.

Jadhav had survived the attack in which ATS Chief Hemant Karkare, encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar and Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte, all three traveling in the same car, had been killed by two assailants. The three top police officials were on their way to a hospital when their vehicle was commandeered by the attackers hiding behind a tree.

The nine-page reply sent to Delhi in response of its dossier contains two separate sets of questions. The annexure-A has 30 questions, which are all aimed at seeking further details on Ajmal Kasab -- the lone surviving terrorist -- his other partners, objects confiscated from them, and related information. The annexure-B is attached to the official reply with two specific questions that deal with ATS Chief Karkare’s death, Malegaon and Samjhota incidents, and possible links of Hindu extremists with various violent activities in India, mainly against Muslims.

As the probe proceeds, investigators here say they intend to closely study the circumstances in which Karkare was killed, and what kind of linkage his killing may have with his investigation into earlier incidents of Samjhota Express and Malegaon blasts.

Karkare while leading the investigation into the 2008 Malegaon blasts laid hands on some 11 people linked to radical Hindu groups on suspicion of being behind the blasts. Hindu organisations and opposition groups like Bharatiya Janta Party and Shiv Sena alleged that the arrests were meant to appease India’s Muslim population.

Jadhav’s eye-witness account, investigators believe, could prove crucial in coming days.

After the incident, the constable gave a number of media interviews. However, he was silenced by India’s political and security establishment that barred him from speaking to the media.

Explaining the reason for seeking the eye-witness account of the lone survivor, the reply to the Indian dossier notes: “It is necessary as Mr Karkare was investigating the cases against militants in mass-scale killings of Muslims in India, including Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit, reportedly involved in Samjhota Express incident.”

Furthermore, clarification has been sought from India about the contacts between Surat’s diamond firm and some Hindus in Pakistan. The diamond firm is alleged to be the sponsor of the Malegaon blasts through Lt Col Purohit.

The information regarding Jadhav’s statement and the Surat diamond firm has been asked separately from the main 30 questions and has been placed on the Annexure-B.

Ostensibly in a bid to explore the local assistance to the attackers, the 30 questions have sought details of interrogation of Counter-Insurgency Officer Mukhtar Ahmed, another Indian national Tausif Rehman, both of whom had been arrested after the Mumbai attack on the charge of providing cellphone Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards to the terrorists. A separate question requires an explanation about how the terrorists got the details of their targets. The question noted that finer details of targets like security systems, entry/exit points could be had only after physical reconnaissance and the setting up of control centers within the targets.

Most of the remaining 30 questions seek general details about assailants, like the confessional statement of the lone surviving attacker, Ajmal Amir Kasab, his Pakistani National Identity Card, the cellphone numbers he had used in the past, detailed description of other killed terrorists, their DNA profiles, list of the possessions recovered from the killed attackers and their fingerprints. Some other queries pertain to the picture identified by Kasab as that of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and the recording of voice identified by Kasab as that of Abu Hamza and Kahfa, who were allegedly the handlers.

The questions also point out certain ambiguities in the dossier that had been given to Pakistan and ask India to clarify them. In one instance it says: “If the terrorists started in a small boat from Karachi at approximately 0800 hours on 22nd Nov, then how come MOB waypoint is showing the boat’s position near Keti Bandar nearly one hour before this time?”

Moreover, it said, out of 17 waypoints only three have date stamps and remaining are without the same, creating doubts whether these points are authentic or created through GPS.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi while emphasising the need for India to respond to the questions hand over the weekend told journalists that Pakistan “will take the next step in the light of reply received from India”. Meanwhile, Foreign Office spokesman Mr Abdul Basit said in a statement on Monday: “The entire international community has praised Pakistan for its earnestness and cooperation in bringing the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice. Pakistan will continue working towards this end.”