Kathmandu: Nepal has rubbished a Pakistani lawyer's claim that Ajmal Amir Iman, the lone terrorist captured alive during the Mumbai attacks, was handed over to "Indian agencies" after he was nabbed in Nepal two years ago, saying that it had no such information with it.
"We don't have any such information," said Home Ministry spokesperson Nabin Kumar Ghimire.
"We have no information of either arresting or handing over such a person to Indian authorities," Ghimire said.
The denial came following Pakistani lawyer C M Farooque's claim that Ajmal had gone to Kathmandu before 2006 on a "business visit" when he was arrested by the Nepal police and later handed over to "Indian agencies".
The lawyer had also claimed that about 200 Pakistani nationals were nabbed along with Ajmal in a secret detention centre so that they could be used to serve some "ulterior" purpose some time later.
The Pakistani lawyer told Geo News channel in Islamabad that he had filed a case in Nepal's Supreme Court asking for their release.
The case, Farooque claimed, is still being heard with a hearing scheduled later this month when he would be visiting Kathmandu to argue on behalf of his clients. Farooque was vague about the time when Ajmal was arrested, saying he was apprehended "before 2006".
"The people detained in Nepal had gone there on legal documents for business purposes but Indian agencies used to capture them from Nepal and afterwards implicate them in the Mumbai-like incidents to defame Pakistan," Farooque alleged.
A senior Supreme Court lawyer of Nepal has said that he has no such information about any Pakistani national filing a case in the apex court for the release of the said persons.
"We don't have any knowledge of case being filed in the Supreme Court for the release of the said Pakistani nationals," Dinesh Tripathi said.
Farooque repeatedly fumbled when asked by Geo News about crucial aspects of the case. He could not provide a specific answer as to when he had filed the application in Nepal's courts.
Farooque said he had filed it "sometime in early 2008" and then claimed he had filed it in February this year.
Ajmal's parents in Pakistan have admitted that he is their son and media reports from Pakistan suggest that he was recruited from there by the terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba, blamed for the Mumbai attacks.
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