A new judge was appointed on Saturday to conduct the trial of seven key suspects in the Mumbai terror attack case, replacing Judge Baqir Ali Rana who asked to be taken off the case citing “security issues”.

Judge Malik Muhammad Akram Awan of the Anti-Terrorism Court replaced Rana on the orders of Chief Justice of Lahore High Court Khwaja Mohammad Sharif.

Rana was conducting the trial of the seven suspects, including senior Lashkar-e-Toiba operatives Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah, in-camera in the high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.

There were reports that Rana received threats from the LeT because the suspects were indicted in the absence of their lawyers during a hearing on October 10. Rana was also reportedly unhappy about pressure from the government regarding the case, sources said.

The four lawyers representing the suspects had accused Rana of being biased against their clients. The defence lawyers filed a petition in the Lahore High Court challenging the indictment of the suspects and asking for the case to be transferred to some other judge, and this petition is scheduled to be taken up on October 26.

However, there were differences of opinion on whether the petition would actually be taken up following the transfer of the Mumbai attacks case to a new judge. Some experts said the petition would become infructuous after the change of the judge.

Khwaja Sultan, one of the four defence lawyers, told PTI that he expected the Lahore High Court to take up the petition as it had challenged the indictment of the suspects and the alleged interference of the interior ministry in the case.

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