Pakistan court rules 26/11 mastermind Lakhvi’s ​detention as illegal, orders release

Islamabad: A court in Pakistan on Friday ordered the release of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, an alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attack.

The Islamabad High Court has ruled Lakhvi’s detention as illegal.

Justice Noorul Haq accepted Lahvi`s appeal filed against his third time detention orders and ordered his release, Dawn online reported.

On March 02, Lakhvi’s counsel Advocate Rizwan Abbasi had contended that it was the third time his client had been issued with the detention orders, Dawn had reported.

The court then sought replies from the district and federal magistrates and adjourned the hearing to March 05.

Lakhvi, who was granted bail by an anti-terrorism court in Islamabad in December last year, has been detained under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) at Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail.

Last year on December 18, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) had granted post-arrest bail to Lakhvi. The bail decision triggered a furious response from New Delhi and Pakistani prosecutors had swiftly announced they would appeal against it.

On the same day, the federal government ordered his detention under the MPO.

When the IHC suspended the detention order on December 29, 2014, Lakhvi was rearrested in an over six-and-a-half-year-old kidnapping case.

Lakhvi is among the seven people charged with planning and helping carry out the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

The six other men facing trial in Adiala Jail for their alleged involvement in the 26/11 attacks are Hammad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jamil Riaz, Younas Anjum, Jamil Ahmed, Mazhar Iqbal and Abdul Majid.

At the time of the attacks, Lakhvi was believed to be the operational head of the banned Laskhar-e-Toiba (LeT) that has been accused by India of carrying out the attacks in India’s financial capital.

Lakhvi, along with Zarar Shah, was allegedly the key planner of the attack that killed more than 160 people.